I didn’t get the promotion or bonus I deserved. Is this place stuffed?

Dear Aunty B,

I was expecting a bonus and a promotion for having done an “outstanding” job (boss’s words) in H2.

Instead, I didn’t get the promotion and only got a third of the bonus. The reason for this, apparently, is that I didn’t contribute to the overall strategic development of the company.

My job description says nothing about that. And isn’t it the job of the highly paid flunkies who get the car parks to work out where we are going? I would think it is penny pinching in a bad year except I know personally that one of the flunkies, and so I guess the rest of them too, got their bonuses.

How is it then that if we had a bad year those people who led us got bonuses, but I was left out – even though I, apparently, did an “outstanding” job? Is this place more stuffed than I think?

Dani

Melbourne

Dear Dani,

How sad. It’s Monday morning, a blue winter sky here in Melbourne and I have had the morning coffee and I get this. I see it all the time: perfectly talented, hardworking people who are career blind. They literally have no idea what is required for them to take the next steps. They vastly overestimate their own abilities and when a boss is kind and generous enough to sit you down and coach you on how to get to that next level, you can’t hear a thing that has been said. Instead, you pull out your job description and tick the boxes. Your boss is actually a nice woman/bloke so I will do you a favour and drop the nice speak.

Here is what your boss is really saying:

“Dani, this year has been crap. I didn’t want to tell you how bad it was because I don’t want to demoralise you. Besides you are a prickly type with a glass half empty personality and you tend to catastrophise things to the team, which affects company morale.

“The fact is we can’t keep doing things the way we have. But we are feeling our way here and trying to work out what the new models are, trying to pull in new streams of revenue, trying to second guess the market and build a future for the business and our people. A lot of our senior people understand this and off their own bat are trying to figure out the future.

“But not you. You are head down, focused on ticking the boxes of your bloody job description and whining away about anything you can think of. The problem is this: your job won’t be here in a few years. So I would really like your help inventing the future. But the few times I have raised this with you, you just bang on about what a good job you are doing – which you are – and I have bigger problems to deal with than holding your hand while you figure out the world has changed.”

So listen up!

Be smart,

Your Aunty B

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