I keep volunteering for opportunities, and they are consistently shot down by Management. I have the soft skills and have the technical skills. I’ve actually trained the people who are now moving ahead of me. I asked the main dept head what I can do to try to move forwards, and the advice was to just keep working on my technical skills and cited that the others had experience I didn’t (but I never get selected for those opportunities. They are never announced ahead of time, we just find out people are doing those projects. I’ve indicated to my manager several times that this is something I’d like to do) I am getting really tired of not feeling like my work is getting me anywhere. Whether I put in a 150% or 30%, they really don’t notice. Management actually forgot to include me for annual reviews. I have written, stellar feedback from our customer base, but it hasn’t made much of a difference. It seems like the same four or five people are awarded opportunities. I’m wondering if it’s time to jump ship. I don’t want to be a quitter but I don’t know what else to do.
What company do you work at OP?
a small one! so i dont feel comfortable posting the name here
How many years has this been going on? Moving on is the best option as it seems like management is blind to your contributions. This happened to me at the end of which the biggest compliment my manager gave me was for an email - I left the next week. I did less than half the work in my next place but got rave reviews and acknowledgement. In short go where you are valued. It's not worth staying in a place you are not valued and spend energy trying to change people's perspectives.
just about four yrs
i think you’re right. time to start looking for new opportunities...
If you’re not learning anything new, leave
Is there an ethnic element at play here? For example the people who are moving up are all of the same ethos? And you are not? Seen this before too many times.
yes there is an ethnic element. i definitely stand out and im the only one. ive never felt like ive been discriminated on that part of my identity before though...
no one has ever directly called it out
You gotta leave. Start applying and get yourself a job with a decent pay jump that makes you happy. Put in 50% at this job until then, like you said they won’t notice. WARNING: your job is going to try to give you a counter offer, a raise, and promotion... don’t take it. They don’t respect you and will probably fire you months later
solid advice, thank you!
Just curious, why would they offer me a raise and probably dump me? Why bother at all?
Leave ASAP.
Smile back a lot. Be respectful towards the management. Don’t burn bridges. However prepare like crazy and get out of there ASAP.
Agreed. I like the people behind management and the industry I work in is small. But now it’s time to get crackin’
You claim that you have soft skills and yet you don’t see a huge message from your manager: “I don’t care about you”.
Yeah, I guess I just needed to put it in writing/get validation. By soft skills, I meant intonation/reading the customer/writing skills/working with coworkers
It’s harder to see because we’re all “friends”. A lot of the team bonds after work. So even if I’m not professionally being pushed forward, everyone still puts on a friendly face. It almost makes it harder to realize that even though they may like me as a person, they are doing nothing to help me move to the next level unless I practically beg for it.