My boss had a talk with me last week that’s really bothered me. So for a little backstory, I’m not trying to sound like I’m bragging, but I’m very good at my job. I learned some really advanced skills and techniques from a decent mentor when I first entered this field and that kinda put me ahead of the curve. Because of this, my day to day tasks are a breeze. It’s very easy for me and I can power through my tasks very quickly. So, that’s kinda made this job I’m at currently kinda nice because it’s gravy. I zip through my work, it’s easy to me, it leaves me a lot of downtime to just kinda chill and since I’m salary, I get to leave early a lot.
Now comes my meeting. My boss said she’s unhappy with me. Not because of my work, she’s very pleased, but she’s not happy that I’m not taking more initiative to learn other jobs around here and start doing other tasks outside my job responsibilities that I’m paid to do. I was kinda confused and asked her why I’d do that. She said because she wants to promote me to a higher job. Couple issues here. One, I don’t want the job she wants to promote me to. It’s stressful. I held that position at another company before, didn’t enjoy it. Two, if she wants to promote me, then offer me the promotion. Why would I start to take on tasks from that position if I don’t have it and am not being paid the money that position comes with?
It’s really frustrating because she’s annoyed she’s “paying me to do nothing” when I have downtime without understanding that I only have downtime because I’m above average. I do the work it would take someone without my experience and skill set 8 hours and I can get it done in 5-6. If she wants to keep me busy, then she can try to find more work within my current position. Is that non reasonable ask from my end?
The other frustrating thing is, I have no interest in this promotion, but she’s making it sound like I don’t have a choice. That’s where she wants me to be apparently, but that’s not where I want to be. I hate the field I’m in. I only entered it because I discovered I was good at it years ago and thought it’d be a nice way to make money. Well a few years down the road, I don’t like. I wanna do other things and this just keeps the lights on while I work on those things. But now I’m feeling like I’m being forced to start “showing initiative” meaning work extra hours and do extra tasks for free until eventually they force me into a position I don’t wanna be in because I know I’ll become buried in work from it and won’t have time to pursue what I actually want. This shit really sucks. My boss doesn’t seem to understand the value I bring to the table by being as good as I am in my current position and sees my as a slacker when I’m not. But then also she wants to force this slacker into a higher position? If I wanna coast I should be able to coast. If she wants someone to fill that role, then fuckin hire someone. Just because others want climb the corporate ladder, doesn’t mean I want to and that should be an option, but apparently it isn’t. If I wanna keep my job, I need to start doing more work for no additional pay until I get into a job I don’t want. I hate this man