Keeping precise details light because I know at least one director who reads r/antiwork.
I have been in my current role for multiple years, with associates coming and going, leaving me as the most experienced one, having trained all of the people newer than me. I have been working towards becoming a Senior, with a history of management recognizing my trends and making Senior a stated goal on performance reviews. As it stands, we are in review season right now.
Every month, we have a big company meeting to recognize anniversaries, accomplishments and promotions. On March's announcement meeting, my direct manager introduced me by name and role of Senior [ position ] who just hit his [ milestone ]. Since it's review season, I think, “Awesome! I got the promotion!” I'm absolutely gushing and thankful on the call as I accept the recognition.
I wish I were kidding, but my annual performance review was yesterday, April Fools day. But it is consistent with the timeline from prior years. I sit down to the review and I get overall good marks and praise for my initiatives and projects.
The meeting goes to the question and answer portion. I ask a few softball questions, and then finally ask, “So, you introduced me to the company the other week as Senior, but you haven't mentioned that position during this review. Am I receiving a promotion or not?”
Manager immediately gets flustered, backpedaling “that's not up for me to say, it's [ upper manager ]'s call” and “ya know, I've always thought of you as senior but I didn't know that wasn't your title”, so on and so forth. No commitment to the position.
I told him I am not acknowledging the review until a promotion becomes contingent to this review, since he already announced it to the company ( C-Suite also sits on the call ). I'm told he will have an answer Monday.
What would you do?
I must also add that I have an offer letter from an interview this past week to join another company that pays 30% more, starts asap but is contract-to-hire. I'd be doing the same type of work, lower workload, fully remote, BUT I lose the stability by being contract-to-hire.