I work on the loading dock for a trucking company, and my job essentially consists of me driving a forklift and loading and unloading trailers. I’ve been there since 2017 and I’ve worked hard there and I barely miss work and my coworkers and management all think highly of me and praise me for the work I do, going above and beyond in not only my job but helping out and filling in for other positions as well.
Recently I got the opportunity to fill in for a supervisor that was on vacation. It went really well and I was told I did a great job and they were impressed with my performance and I was told that they were going to have me fill in like that more which is great because I would love to get into management there. The issue starts when the next weekend they needed someone to fill in and I thought I was gonna get to do it, but they trained another one of my coworkers to do it instead.
I asked our boss what was going on and why was he getting to fill in instead of me now, and my boss told me it was “because he wants to do it, and you should mind your own business and worry about yourself.” My coworker who I’ll refer to as Zack is the son of the HR rep and office manager, and his girlfriend also works in the office with the Terminal Manager.
It’s been a couple months since this started and I haven’t gotten any more opportunities or even answers. Management says they’re still impressed by the work I do and the effort I put in, but I get blown off when I ask about filling in even though they still say I did great. Zack has noticeably struggled and constantly needs help keeping this in check, he’s even asked me for help. I obliged and helped because it wasn’t hard for me and I genuinely like Zack and we are friends outside of work so I didn’t want to be petty. This whole situation has killed all of my motivation at work but I live in a rural area and good paying jobs are few and far between so I’m not sure where to go from here.