Passed Over At Work

[Wook]

I recently applied for a better job with my employer. I'm currently working on a funded project which ends this month, so after July I'll basically be unemployed. You can imagine how delighted I was when a job opening came up. The job is basically more of what I have been doing for the last 3 years. The job title is what is currently written on my office door.

I've been with my current employer for around 9 years, and in my current role for 3. Before this job was even announced publicly, the person responsible for hiring came to my office and told me what date the application would go live, and asked me to apply. They even asked me when I could start. You know how sometimes you hear about internal candidates being "pre-selected" for a post? Maybe I was being naive, but that was what I thought this person was trying to convey to me by saying these things. This belief was further reinforced when I saw that the job was receiving only a bare minimum of advertising. None of the usual job websites, just the in-house website only. I believed they were sandbagging it for me. To my annoyance someone not connected with the application decided to be "helpful" by posting the job to a mailing list I subscribe to. Even so I wasn't too worried. Everyone says I am good at my job, and I was sure that I could win even in a "fair" fight.

You can imagine my surprise when two days after the interviews (which I'm told I did excellent at) the same person who originally asked me to apply emailed me to say they were really sorry, but the job had gone to one of the external candidates that had responded to the advert. I was gutted. They said this person had more experience.

We'll survive, but we'll probably have to uproot the family from the area (which has been our home for 10 years) and go where the work is.

My mind has been going round in circles trying to figure this one out. I can accept that there may be someone with loads more experience in this area than me, but the thing is this is the sort of job that is meant to be a stepping stone. That means if they have a lot more experience than me, their career must have completely stagnated. Surely that would count against them?

In terms of qualifications I'm massively overqualified for the job as advertised, so if this person is better qualified than me, again you'd think it would be so much over the job spec that it started to count against them.

If they only have a little more experience than me, I'm surprised that where I acquired my experience doesn't seem to count for anything at all. I'd have hoped that in-house experience would carry additional weighting. Apparently not.

I think it is probably one of two things. Either:

A) I misread the signals of the person who asked me to apply when in fact they weren't going to do me any favours

or

B) They were trying to give me the job but overestimated their own influence and one of the higher-ups torpedoed my application for some reason.

Whadya think?

 

[Mesquite]

By the sounds of it I think it's B.

Sometimes the higher ups make decisions that beg to be understood.

I wish you luck with your career and fingers crossed you find a job real soon.

 

[wingstoo]

Yep, it's a real blow to the gut when that happens, My last employer was making redundancies for months, I got the letters but never got selected because I was "One of the best" that they wanted to keep, others were getting their pay outs, but at least I had a job, so all happy there... Then I had a weeks holiday out in the woods, and I got a text message from a colleague saying a meeting had been called and could I get to it...Nope, I was on holiday and couldn't get back.

So he wen tto the meeting and when finished sent me a text...

"Companies gone into liquidation, Empty your van"...

So with nearly 8 years service and the senior fitter on the department I was now un-employed, no pay was paid into my bank, no holiday pay and no redundancy pay out like the others had received, and no pay in lieu of notice, all in all I should have received about 6 months pay minimum, I got the equivalent of about six weeks pay eventually, took well over a couple of months to get that cheque, new job started 3 weeks later and had to work a month in hand...So basically had no pay for over 2 months... I was not a happy bunny at all...

Good luck with whatever you do, and hopefully it will be a small blip that won't cause any hardship.

 

[Wook]

I think the worst part was that (perhaps understandably) I felt almost sure I had the job. I genuinely didn't see this coming.

It wouldn't have been so bad otherwise. My wife and I couldn't help ourselves from mentally planning long-overdue holidays and imagining how much easier ours lives were going to be.

These mental plans all needed to be tossed on the fire, and that's what hurt the most.

 

[wingstoo]

If you have been with them all that time are you due any redundancy pay out?

 

[Wook]

No, because they've not made me redundant. They just didn't give me a new job when my current one came to an end.

 

[jimbo75]

Usually it's because the other person they can get away with paying less.. Or out them on a crappy contract.

 

[wingstoo]

I would check my contract of employment, if you are an "Employee" they need to find you work, unless you are on a fixed term contract, my employer doesn't terminate my contract every time I finish a job...He either finds me more work or he pays me to sweep the floor until he does find me more work in line with my skills.

 

[Stringmaker]

That really sucks; my heart goes out to you.

The very best of luck in getting through this; facing the prospect of having to uproot your life must be awful. I know how I would feel.

 

[sandbender]

Not so good, I'm hopefully coming to the end of a four year 'dry-spell' work wise so I can see why you are worried. Hopefully something will turn up sooner rather than later. In my experience, in the last ten years or so, if a person doesn't get a job it is nearly always because the other person is in someway cheaper.

Re terms of employment etc. It wouldn't do you any harm to have a chat with Citizen's Advice.

 

[mrcharly]

I think it is 'B' as well.

That really sucks, sorry to hear you've been shafted in this way.

 

[spandit]

Without getting confrontational, why not ask the person who told you about the job the reasons why you were passed over? You might find your interview technique needs improving or that the successful candidate was cheaper/better qualified

 

[Elen Sentier]

Usually it's because the other person they can get away with paying less.. Or out them on a crappy contract.

Unfortunately that does seem to be the case Good luck with your future, thinking of you, it seems to be getting to be a very crappy world out there

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Hope you get work soon. I went into teaching to avoid redundancy and temp. Contracts. Touch wood it's very stable.

 

[Nemesis]

I would ask for feedback in writing as to why you didn't get the job.


Also bear in mind that the chosen person may yet pull out of the role.

 

[leon-1]

Having been in a similar situation a few years back and knowing exactly the reason that I was passed over I don't think it was B or A.

I was on a an open contract and to upgrade me would have meant paying me more. This meant about £5,000 a year to the company I worked for, however they could get someone in on a short term contract and pay them what I was currently earning and let them go if they so desired or needed with relative ease.

What I didn't know was that there were plans to move the whole operation to China, if they upgraded me then my payscale would change and my redundancy package would have been considerably larger, 6 months down the line the other guy was cut loose and I then had a job for a further 6 months.

If you have been passed over it is more than likely due to financial reasons, not your ability or even what the interviewer has to say. If you have 2 people with similar skill sets, one with a larger degree of experience who'll work for less or the same money as you are currently on which would you employ??

I feel for you as I have been there, but you have to see this from an employers perspective in the current financial / business climate. Their decision doesn't reflect badly upon you it is purely based on the financial.

It's the same as getting you car washed by hand by a group of eastern europeans rather than going to a conventional carwash. You are paying less to get the same end result and if it breaks down it'll be a damned site easier and cheaper for the employer to fix.

 

[Wook]

Don't think so Leon. The details of the job contract, including duration and payscale, were advertised along with the job. The pay range was quite narrow, with only about £1500 between top and bottom. I'd have settled for bottom.

 

[Stew]

I'd have settled for bottom.

Did they know that though? They might have thought you wouldn't.

does sound like a rubbish situation though mate.

 

[presterjohn]

Yep, it's a real blow to the gut when that happens, My last employer was making redundancies for months, I got the letters but never got selected because I was "One of the best" that they wanted to keep, others were getting their pay outs, but at least I had a job, so all happy there... Then I had a weeks holiday out in the woods, and I got a text message from a colleague saying a meeting had been called and could I get to it...Nope, I was on holiday and couldn't get back.

So he wen tto the meeting and when finished sent me a text...

"Companies gone into liquidation, Empty your van"...

So with nearly 8 years service and the senior fitter on the department I was now un-employed, no pay was paid into my bank, no holiday pay and no redundancy pay out like the others had received, and no pay in lieu of notice, all in all I should have received about 6 months pay minimum, I got the equivalent of about six weeks pay eventually, took well over a couple of months to get that cheque, new job started 3 weeks later and had to work a month in hand...So basically had no pay for over 2 months... I was not a happy bunny at all...

Good luck with whatever you do, and hopefully it will be a small blip that won't cause any hardship.

One of my best mates had the almost the same thing happen to him. Over the years most of his colleagues were made redundant one by one.. the first batches to go were given massive severance packages by the time that the company had its last re structure my mate got a pittance. Loyalty and hard work counts for nothing these days. Companies wonder why they don't get the love and loyalty from staff that they used to. To me it seems the more loyal you are the more you get pooped on by them.

 

[Dannytsg]

Sounds like option B to me. I am in a similar position at the moment but my time scale isn't as compressed as yours ( I have about 12 months left)

I hope you manage to figure something out and hope everything works out well.