I work in a niche industry. I'm a team leader than manages a group of contractors. All of them are on a 6 month assignment that may get extended or terminated at the end of the 6 month. They only get paid $16 with no benefits.
My boss wanted to expand our department and decided to create 3 more positions. Let's just say they are “office assistants”. These are full time positions and significantly pay more, like $10 more. Even though the duties are not much different.
My boss noticed one of my contractors “A” excels at their job and would be good at “office assistant.”. He asked me to ask the contractor if they are interested. I did as instructed. A was very happy at the prospect of this “promotion” and I was very happy for them as well. I passed onto my boss. I asked him if they should apply. He told me no, because he might be able to convert A to full time. At this point, it sounded that A was 99% going to get the job. We just needed to make it official
A few weeks later, he told me they can't do that. Because of A being a new contractor, the company will have to pay 20% fee to the contractor agency if we convert A to full time less than 6 months. Understandable. So he told me, he'd convert him after his contract ends. Great. Then my boss filled 2 out of the 3 positions, saying the 3rd position will be A's
2 months later, my boss told me another contractor, B who's been longer as a contractor applied for the position and it wouldn't be fair to give the position to A than B. BUT my boss said he wants to give B another newly created position but he's waiting approval from HR. If this position gets approved, then B will go to this position and A will get the “office assistant” position.
and now today, A asked me if there's an update. I reached out to my boss and to my surprise, he said he's interviewing people for the third position. WHAT THE F? and he asked me if A applied? We were told NOT to apply. Anyway, I told A to apply formally but not to get their hopes up. A applied and my boss told me HR will contact A for further steps.
But at this point, I don't have much faith in my boss…. ultimately the decision is his, not HR's and I feel bad for getting A's hopes up. How do I approach this? What do I do?