Managers: If you want to promote someone, then do your job.
Late last year, my boss left the company. That has left me in the exciting and terrifying position of doing things that I’ve never really done before since most of their responsibilities now fall to me. Recently, two managers asked for my help. “Hey, I know that money is tight and that we froze perf reviews, but one of my reports is really under-levelled. Can you help convince the CEO to make an exception?” Both with the same request, both within a week of each other because a little bit of fundraising occurred.
“Of course”, I said. I knew both of the employees and they both had stepped up when their teams had vacancies — much like I was doing when my manager left. In retrospect, this was a terrible idea! Yes, it was clearly Director level work. Yes, it was clearly the right thing to do from the managers’ perspective. But convincing someone I had no relationship with to spend money (when money is tight) on my recommendation is not exactly setting myself up for success.
Things went well though, and both employees got their well-deserved promotions. Cheers all around.
I bring this up today because of how unusual it is. As an engineer, I would hear time and again about how my manager would love to promote me, but could not. It was out of their hands. They didn’t have the budget. They couldn’t…
