How to address: employee went over my head to my boss for a promotion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s disrespectful of the employee. It’s the workplace equivalent of going to “dad” when “mom” said no to something. It shows that employee did not respect your authority and/or thought she was more able of convincing your boss than you were, or that you never even tried but told her you did.

Where I work this would not fly. Employee would be told by big boss “I’m not sure why you’re bringing this to me. Your direct supervisor and I discussed it, and I understood she was going to communicate the results of that discussion to you. Did that not take place?”

depends. a discerning big boss would find out what the deal is and why they don't trust their direct boss. I would want to know that about my subordinate.

I do agree that it depends on the size and culture of the organization where you work. At my workplace, bigger bosses trust the managers wfo report to them, and also don’t have the time to deal with the various issues of all their subordinates subordinates. Perhaps if 10 or 15 people who reported to one manager tried something like this, the big boss would ask HR to look into it. But if it’s just the one, it’s assumed that the manager (who big boss knows better and trusts) is doing their job, and employee doesn’t respect the chain of command/will be difficult for other managers to work with. If anything, it would make them less appealing to be promoted as they’ll be seen as entitled/disruptive. I realize not all workplaces are like mine but If OP’s is, the employee has stepped in it at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You didn't advocate for your employee when she needed you. So you impacted your relationship at the outset.

Can you read? Just because an employee asks for a promotion doesn't mean he/she is entitled to it. The company was willing to evaluate in 6 months, and all of this was communicated to the employee. What this employee did was unprofessional and caused the relationship to be impacted. I wouldn't want to continue working with him/her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That isn’t what is happening here. I brought the promotion to my boss. I wanted to make it happen. Boss had a few reasons why we couldnt but agreed to took at it again in short order.

Saying to an employee "there are a few reasons, I wasn't gonna push the case with the boss because you know, I need to protect my own promotion, but we might consider a promotion for you in half a year or so" is not something you say to a valued employee.

And by now she's already looking around, so I guess you should start looking for a replacement.

You have a very active imagination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get over yourself and stop being so insecure. Why are you so threatened by your employee talking to your boss?

Not OP: Gosh, so many stupid people commenting. This isn't acceptable behavior in the workplace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it reflects more poorly on the employee than the OP because it does sound like they didn't get the right answer from one person and decided to try another (like promotions don't tend to go up to the next level). Grandboss handled it consistently, and I wouldn't bother addressing the meeting with the employee. I've had employees do this to me on occasion, and all they heard was the same thing twice.

+1 An employee like this can't be trusted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get over yourself and stop being so insecure. Why are you so threatened by your employee talking to your boss?

+1

+100

This should not be such a huge deal. Your employee didn't trust you. That's on YOU not on your employee. Why didn't she trust what you were saying?

Because she's a sneaky cow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You didn't advocate for your employee when she needed you. So you impacted your relationship at the outset.

Can you read? Just because an employee asks for a promotion doesn't mean he/she is entitled to it. The company was willing to evaluate in 6 months, and all of this was communicated to the employee. What this employee did was unprofessional and caused the relationship to be impacted. I wouldn't want to continue working with him/her.

+1.

I couldn't trust this employee any longer, would probably start looking for a replacement.

[Anonymous]

I have seen this twice in my office. After the first person was denied and left, I started to plan my exit. After the second time, I am on my way out and person 2 is looking. If you aren't going to pay your employees and they have the means to go elsewhere, then you won't hold on to good people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm surprised by all of the answers on this thread. The manager did nothing wrong, the employee handled the situation badly.

Personally, I wouldn't say anything, but I probably wouldn't be in a hurry to push the employees case again any time soon.

The employee lost an ally in you.

+1

Well what would you advise an employee who just gets told over and over that they aren’t getting a raise? It’s been 5 years for me.

I went over my boss’s head and easily got a raise. I was going to leave if that hadn’t worked.

I would not have waited 5 years. I know it sounds easy for me to say but it is true. I would not have waited 5 years.

Ok but would you go over your bosss head?

Nope. The employee got an answer she didn't like and decided to go to Dad instead hoping for a different answer than Mom's. Dad in this case reinforced Mom's answer.

I would not have gone to Dad. I would either step up and do what Mom told me to do in order to get reevaluated in 6 months or I would leave, realizing the promotion wasn't going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have seen this twice in my office. After the first person was denied and left, I started to plan my exit. After the second time, I am on my way out and person 2 is looking. If you aren't going to pay your employees and they have the means to go elsewhere, then you won't hold on to good people.

But that's OP's point. The employee wasn't good enough to have earned the promotion right then and has some work to do before she's earned the promotion.

[Anonymous]

Your boss backed you up. You won. Stand down.

[Anonymous]

I think with pissing you off is that you want to be the person who decides who gets promoted, rather than being the advocate for who gets for promoted. In this case it’s good your boss backed you up.

I don’t have an issue with someone advocating for themselves and for their career, and neither should you. Get used to it with younger generations – they don’t respect the chain of command and want to speak on their own behalf. I’m not judging, I am sharing personal experience.

[Anonymous]

Haven’t read all the thread, but are you certain the employee initiated the conversation? Could the boss have offered to have a career trajectory conversation where this came up?

My big boss on a project asked me to meet with him. Asked me how I felt about an email my boss had sent me. She belittled my work / attitude and he told me her email seemed really inappropriate in its tone. She was pissed off I’d met with him and assumed I’d gone behind her back to do so. The weird thing is I’d told no one / shown no one the email so either she Bcc’d big boss (or forwarded it to him) or bcc’d someone else who shared it with big boss. Anyhow, in my feedback session she “coached” me on not going over my boss’ head. I felt like if I told her he initiated it (and got into the fact that I don’t know how he got the email) it would turn really ugly so I didn’t say anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I think with pissing you off is that you want to be the person who decides who gets promoted, rather than being the advocate for who gets for promoted. In this case it’s good your boss backed you up.

I don’t have an issue with someone advocating for themselves and for their career, and neither should you. Get used to it with younger generations – they don’t respect the chain of command and want to speak on their own behalf. I’m not judging, I am sharing personal experience.

Another one with a wild imagination.

[Anonymous]

What would grand boss rather the employee do? Just leave? Or should they make sure they tried all avenues when the boss denied them?