But a woman took matters into her own hands about how she’d work moving forward when this happened.
Let’s see what went down.
So I’m not getting the promotion you promised? Then I’m not doing the extra work.
“This isn’t my story, but my wife’s. She doesn’t have Reddit and said I could share her story with you lovely people. Allow me to set the scene.
My wife – Harper’s – official title is Mental Health Professional, or MHP, and she has been in this position for three years at a live-in care facility for adults with mental illnesses. Before that, she work for several years on the mental health ward at the hospital, so she had more experience walking into her current position than anyone else they had hired.
Within her first year, she got 2 lifers to progress in their treatment plans so thoroughly that they both got the okay to move out into the sister program that has more freedom and independence. She was working with a third “lifer” who was about ready to apply for the sister program when lockdown hit and the transfers between housing, or even non-AMA releases, were suspended.
All this is to say that she has made some very serious and positive changes for this facility from the moment she started working there. They made her the Lead MHP, and her direct supervisor’s boss started giving her more responsibilities; like the morning team report for the whole facility, handling client money, making decisions on big changes to help the overall workload, ect.
Her yearly review happened in December, which was promised to come with a large raise to reflect all the added responsibilities she has been gradually given. Of course, it didn’t. She stayed on HR about her raise for a month or so after the review itself until the big boss finally brought her into his office to discussed with her a promotion.
It would be a bit tricky because she has her Bachelor’s in psych and social work, but not her Master’s – which we’re working on getting her back in school soon to complete, and which she needs to officially fulfill the job title they had in mind.
Still, she was clearly leaps and bounds beyond her coworkers, often staying over to help clients or to help finish paperwork, filling in wherever she’s needed. So, promoting her would be cheaper than hiring on someone new, and of course this would come with an even better pay raise.
So, for the last few months my wife has been doing even more for her supervisor’s boss and the big boss. Anything they ask of her, dangling that official promotion over her head, constantly saying it would be a “gradual transition” and she needs to learn this or that – do this or that – to train for it. Out of her own pocket, she bought new binders and other supplies that made the various parts of her job and theirs easier.
She planned, reorganized, filled-in, whatever. The supervisor’s boss even told her verbatim “I don’t know what I would do without your help!” several times. All this with the promise of an official promotion and a raise.
Then it happened. Last week, Harper was tasked with sorting through potential new hires – as they had been hurting for more MHPs for some time, and the bosses had taken some of Harper’s clients off her work load to make room for the new responsibilities – she noticed that of the stack she was given, all applicants had a Master’s or qualifying credential in social work. Hmmm… Worrisome.
Two days ago, it was business as usually for most of the day until about an hour before Harper was supposed to clock out. She called me in angry tears ranting about the conversation she had just had with the supervisor’s boss. He told her she would unfortunately be taking on more clients, and the promotion would be put on hold for the time being.
She said he didn’t come right out and say he had decided to hire one of the people with a Master’s instead for the position, but what he did say was “you’ll have to relinquish any added responsibilities and return to being just an MHP”.
Okay. Bet.
After trying to calm her down, I gave my normally frustratingly accommodating wife a nudge in the malicious direction. One of the first added responsibilities she was given was the morning report. It was her job to have all the staff gather during the clients’ breakfast to relay what happened during 3rd shift, the plans for the day, coordinating client appointments, ect.
She would have to be in the facility before 3rd shift clocked out to get their notes, and then plan a traveling and gas budget for all the appointments, review any safety concerns or incidents, and this all added about an hour to her morning.
So, how happy was she the next morning when she got to snooze her alarm and sleep in a bit longer. When she got to the facility at her usual clock in time as an MHP, she said the place was already in chaos.
A fight had broken out and someone had some money stolen out of their room (all normal events for this place) but no one was exactly sure on the who or why of it because 3rd shift had had no one to pass along the notes so they just filed them and left. Of course Harper knew where they had been filed, because she organized the filing system no one had thought to check.
As soon as supervisor’s boss saw her clock in, he asked why she wasn’t there for report. See, he is always a seemingly sweet and soft spoken man, which made the sudden change of mind all the more surprising. Harper said she just stared him down, trying not to grin, and said “I’m just an MHP. I can’t handle the morning report.”
She then spent the rest of the day giving him the cold shoulder; relaying only necessary information to him while focusing on her clients and paperwork. I want to be clear, it isn’t that the chose a more educated person for the hire position.
That makes plenty of sense. It’s that they promised her that position, spent the last few months transitioning her responsibilities to that position, promised her the pay raise to go with it, and then ripped it out from under her. That’s some underhanded bulls**t.
Oh, and since she isn’t getting the promotion, she went to HR to see about her over due yearly raise. She was told no one is getting a raise at the moment because of Covid.”
Now let’s take a look at how readers responded to this story.
This person said that you should always be on the lookout for what else is out there in your field, no matter what.
This individual said the woman needs to take advantage of her new title and start looking at other companies if her current boss is going to drag their feet.
Another reader shared their own story: sometimes, you just have to play hardball.
Finally, this person brought up a good point: these kinds of work experiences can actually cause PTSD for some folks.
Talk to us in the comments and let us know.
