I wouldn't say I "missed it", Bob

Before I get to my usual rantings, I have another career related one: I got passed over for a promotion. My organization is merging with another and with it more positions were created. Instead of firing anyone they created a whole new level of confusing middle management positions, of which I was told we could apply for. However, yesterday I got the call that not only was I not applying for one, I wasn't getting one.

It was one of those "I understand why this person got the position, but I don't agree with it" scenarios. We've had three positions in our office where seniority had NOTHING to do with the promotion. The less senior person got the position in all three cases. Yet in my department, I was told that seniority was the deciding factor and the person who was chosen had 12 months more time in his job. This despite the fact that I had helped him achieve more than 30 percent of his goals AND served as his leader on three separate projects, all over the last year. He did not step up to lead once.

I really have nothing against the guy. He said all the right things when I talked to him today, but its just awkward knowing that now I have to REPORT to him. I'm disappointed and my ego is hurt because this is the FIRST opportunity in 3 years that our department has had for promotion. I really don't want to have to wait around until 2009-2010 to get another chance to advance.

On a brighter note, the organization did admit to underpaying me by 11 percent for the last two years. So I got an 11 percent raise today. Yesterday I was worth 11 percent less. Although I'm very happy, its still hard to swallow that I've been THAT much underpaid for the last twoyears. My raise is retroactive, but not two years retroactive.

So, that's what's going on in my life. My unappreciation for the good things that happen.