The Short End of the Stick

I have an odd situation at work. My company went through a merger about three years ago. Prior to the merger, I was in charge of all research and media relations. After the merger, my responsibilities were diminished. Now I am in charge of research from the Chicago office. But one person on my staff still does some media stuff….at the time of the merger it made sense because the analytical staff here still needed a local point of contact for media stuff. So, fast forward to present day. The media girl still reports to me. I write her evaluations and she is still part of my staff. But for all intents and purposes, I have nothing to do with media. The person in charge of media is in NY. He rarely communicates with her and he never contributes to her evaluation, no matter how far in advance I request his input.

Last year, I recommended her for a promotion and was turned down flat. My boss even lied to me and said that the media guy had given him some negative feedback about her. (I later discovered that he lied. LIAR!) Meanwhile, we have seen several of her NY counterparts work their way through the ranks in less than a year. Now the girl on my staff is mad. She wants to do research (not media). I don’t blame her. I want to move her to the research team. But that would mean the NY media people will have to let her go. I made the same request last year and I was shot down without any reasonable explanation. I will ask again this year, but I am not looking forward to it.

The bottom line is that the management in NY (looks out for the NY team ahead of the Chicago team. They can move up just for showing up every day, but we have to jump through all kinds of hoops just to even be considered for a promotion.