Y'all don't know how happy I am right now. I'm a long-timer at my company. Work in the creative field. I'm usually much more humble but just for context… always been a top performer, I get praise on nearly every project I touch. People have literally asked me and my boss 'when are they going to make you VP around here??', 'they get an insane value out of you and your team!', [one of] my bosses literally told me recently, 'we need to get people to do what's in your mind somehow, you always get it right and know what we want', on and on. OK you get it.
For whatever reason, times have turned a little dark in terms of rewards and my career advancement at the company. The company is boasting about how well they are doing, all-time high stock prices, best company performance, fully funded bonus and compensation pools, etc. Well, I have been stuck at director level and I've been passed over for promotion for at least the past 2-3 years now. I should be at least at Sr Director or VP level like most of the colleagues I work with are. My workload and responsibilities have increased significantly in that time – but I continue to do the best job I can because I have pride in my work and figured maybe I just need to remind them who's doing outstanding work here and handling everything in this area. I am VERY underpaid for my role. Because I got to where I am by climbing the corporate ladder all these years. I didn't come in at director level, so my salary has lagged big time.
And then insult to injury happened last October, when they essentially demoted me by putting me and my team (I have a handful of reports that I manage btw) under someone who has always been considered my junior and on a separate branch. Now they are higher rank on the org chart. Boom, a ceiling I don't know that they'll ever put me at or above now.
I can't say I didn't see it coming, there had been signs they may have been planning to put them in leadership position. I also saw other newish paper pushers getting promoted to higher ranks than me, getting to go on the high performer trips, etc. like project managers who basically only put together emails and spreadsheet calendars and annoy people with reminders to do the actual hard skilled work lol. And the way I was told of the 'small re-structure' was completely insulting, which I won't even get into because it's a whole other painful story.
While I have no problem with this person I now technically report to, they came on as a contractor in a mostly unrelated area of the company, have been here less than half the amount of time I have, does not have the skillset to perform the work my team and I do – I have no business reporting to this person. It's like graduating a sophomore before a senior. And they nearly have said as much to me themselves, they constantly patronize me about how I am the master here – I ain't that stupid.
This person jumped at it because they were offered more money, high rank, new title, to inherit me and my team, consolidate us with their team, and they are more buddy-buddy with management, my original boss in particular, and I suspect because they are the same gender and have kids which they love to talk about, they live closer, see each other more often, wine and dine on the company dime, yada yada. I get it. So suddenly I'm reporting to this person and they're technically leading in our area of the company. Yet they still constantly defer to me to run everything. They hide behind me, and take credit for my hard work. This person is so unqualified for me to report to, all they do is ask my original boss what to do, literally every time. That's their answer for nearly everything.
Also, it created this extremely weird structure dynamic. My original boss still pretends to be my boss, they simply copy both of us on requests/whatever they want now so my new manager has oversight into everything I'm working on even if they have zero involvement in the project, though many times still just me. So it is like I have two bosses. Sometimes the boss above them (C-level) even hits me up directly, so it's almost like three bosses. It is so FUBAR.
And it got worse. A month later, come year-end performance rewards, they gave me zero raise, for the first time I can remember in over a decade, not even a tiny COL bump, and a meager run of the mill bonus. Like I said, I am underpaid for my role, and I have bluntly made this clear to them a while back. They didn't give a shit I guess. All while throwing so much work at me, like never before volumes and increased travel which I never signed up for. I guess they figured I'm so chill I won't mind. My work self does usually have a very cool as a cucumber demeanor to be fair. And I get that I do make it look easy to them – but everyone has limits and they don't have to see the 'sausage making' that goes into it all. I just like to focus on my work, doing it well, not drama like this. They screwed me.
I also am constantly kept in the dark, sometimes not invited to meetings where stuff that I need to work on is discussed. And instead I get some regurgitated sloppy notes in some form to try and figure out what management actually wants. It's actually embarrassing for me because to the rest of the company, this is my area and they figure I am in the loop and know what's going on, when I too often do not. I am just an executor/order taker to them apparently.
Anyway, I took it all in stride and tried to make it work, but needless to say I saw the writing on the wall clearly and vowed to get out of there asap. I have been looking for a new job for the past 11 months. Tough tough market (SF Bay Area). And my field and senior position level is competitive. So it's not a dime a dozen openings. Long interview processes too.
FINALLY got a nice offer this week which I have accepted! And now I am nearly ready to pull the rug out from these assholes, after much plotting.
I’m not much of an astrology guy but I did this in true Scorpio fashion – keeping up normal appearances, making them perceive all is well, what they did meant nothing, all while waiting for the right moment to strike, even if it took a year.
These fuckers put their money on the wrong horse – which I suspect they began to realize shortly after making the change last year when it became apparent that their new star didn't know how to do certain things – things that take expertise, training, skills. And now it's about to bite them in the ass, big time. My leaving will cause a huge shitstorm for them that they never saw coming (or maybe they did, who knows). Critical work will come to a grinding halt, or not be completed or will need to be outsourced for big bucks. We are a small but critical team, especially my specialized area that I handle for them.
I'm not stupid enough to realize that everyone is replaceable, but man am I sure going to love knowing they will be fucked for a while until they get someone to backfill and get back on their feet. They like a very certain type of design/creative work, which many folks do not understand or possess. I have been working here a long time, you can't just find someone who will get that learning curve overnight. I have been spoiling them for years and now they will learn the hard way that they should have valued me more. They lost me. I am firing them.
And my new manager will shit a brick because they'll realize all the work will fall to them them when they are already in over their head, and they'll no longer have anyone to hide behind and swoop in for the credit.
Can't wait to drop the bomb on them and see how they react. I will try and maintain composure and not burn bridges because I'm a professional – but if they really push for it, I will sock it to them hard. Hope you all figure it out, because I'm out. Adios, bitches!
TL;DR- company didn't value me, quasi-demoted me disgracefully despite being a consistent top performer, pretended everything was cool, took me almost a year but taking vengeance this week when I finally resign and leave them up shit creek without a paddle and damn it's going to feel good!