| Cody,
Your story is bread-and-butter for those of us who have been
reading this conference for a few years. If you have the time to
look through some of the notes a couple of years back (before we
started to spend much of our time wondering if we'd be in business
next year) - you'll find a number of notes exactly like yours.
In my view it's one of the company's greatest weaknesses that all
the talk about employees being the greatest resource is just hot
air. Digital does not put any effort into tracking its employees'
performance and abilities, and planning the best way to harmonize
their aspirations with the good of the company.
Instead, it's left entirely to managers and employees. You must
assess each individual situation entirely on its own merits, with
regard to the personalities and track records of the specific
individuals.
First, the manager. Managers range the whole gamut from selfish,
self-centered SOBs who couldn't care less about anyone else, to
altruistic, highly-skilled man-managers who lead, motivate, and
inspire. In terms of promotion, this is reflected in a range of
behaviours. The worst managers take the view that they need good
performers working for them in order to look good themselves. But
they have no interest in spending time and effort developing
potential high-flyers - they are only interested in getting the most
credit with the least effort. Therefore they will aim to keep
excellent performers in their group, and will not promote them
unless forced to do so, as this would give the employee wider
visibility. The main goal is to avoid that person leaving the group.
The stuff about "desirability of staying in a certain job for a certain
time" is bluster. The fact is that your promotion and salary reviews
are gated by your manager, and EVERYTHING is at his discretion.
You'll notice all these policies that they quote are vague and
non-quantitative. How long is "a certain time"? What exactly is
"outstanding performance"? Some managers are capable of saying
that "3 level 1 PAs doesn't earn you the right to anything - so
you work hard, that's what you're paid for".
The best managers strive to develop all their employees as far as
possible, and are happy to get them promoted and see them go on to
greater things, in other parts of the company.
Now, the employee. If the employee has a good manager, he can just
work hard (as you have done) and rewards will come. But, if the
manager is a bad one, or even middle-of-the-range, the employee must
focus hard on what he wants, and plan and work to get it. If you
ask most managers (or ANYONE from Personnel) they will tell you
that Digital places the responsibility for career development
squarely on the employee. It may sound strange that they want you
to take time off from the work you are doing, to build up your
personal network, inquire about the workings of the company,
decide what job you want to aim for, and develop a plan to get
you there; but that's what you have to do.
The most important words are "find out", "plan", and "negotiate".
Find out as much as you can: who gets promoted, what they did,
what they do now, whom they got to know, etc. Make sure you're
there when the beer gets drunk and the skeletons come out for a walk.
Don't say much, just listen. Plan what you want to do - would you like
to be a line manager, a consultant, a project manager, an engineer,
a salesman, a marketing executive? Whichever it is, find some of
those people and talk to them. Learn how they got there. Ask if
they know of any vacancies. Finally, negotiate. Find out why your
manager is treating you like a capital asset instead of a person.
Is it a personal issue, or does he gain from keeping you down?
If he is aware that you make him look good, he'll want to keep your
services. This may be one good trading point. Etc.
Finally, remember that although your manager may be absolute
arbiter within your group, the company as a whole is much closer
to a free market. If you are as good as you sound, there will be
other groups who will go a long way to get your services. Find
them.
/Tom
|
| Cody, there are *lots* of people out there in the same position you
are. Unfortunately, I've seen many of them leave the company because
of this situation, since it is rarely explained to an employee that it
really is the *employee's* responsibility to pursue promotions and to
find out what it will take to get to the next level. As Tom pointed
out, there are some managers (the good ones) who will take the
initiative to help the employee with his/her career growth, but my
experience has been that those managers are, sadly, very few and far
between.
In addition to the suggestions given previously, I would also suggest
having an informal one-on-one with your manager. State your concerns,
see if he/she can offer a valid reason. (However, I got a donut that
says they can't). Then work with your manager to develop a strategy to
get you to the next level. Based on your stated last 3 PA ratings, it
would appear that a major portion of whatever the criteria is has
already been accomplished by you. But whatever you do, *DO* talk to
your manager about it; opening the communications channel is infinitely
better than sitting and stewing about it.
Good luck
Jon
|
| "Why would you even care if you got a promotion?", he asked somewhat
facetiously. As I recall you have not been with DEC that long and never
got a promotion. Are you living under the delusion that a promotion
will catapult you into a new standard of living? If you are, boy have
WE got a surprise for YOU!
Defition of "Promotion At DEC":
"You are hereby promoted. You get the same salary increase that you
would have gotten had you not been promoted. If, by chance, you are so
far up in your current salary range that the full amount of your
standard pay increase is not being given to you because you are at the
top of your range, this problem is now solved. Congratulations!"
As a manager, my proposal to management has been to set aside a pool of
money (unrelated to the "increase pool") that is totally dedicated to
"PROMOTIONS". A manager would have to justify a promotion, and would
submit a request to tap into the promotion pool for $n,000.
The result is an employee who has worked his or her butt off gets
rewarded with a NICE salary hit in addition to their normal pay
increase, AND they now have a nice, new, fancy title.
/se
|
| I can agree with the suggestion to select a career path and map out a
strategy. I've been in Manufacturing for over 6 years. I've had 1,
count 'em, 1 so called "Career Planning" meeting with management, and
that was shortly after my 1 year anniversary. Recently I approached
the manager of the Operations group and told him I was interested in
joining his group, what did I need to do to better my position. Right
away he got me started on some self-paced couses and helped me plan a
career development plan. I have applied for an entry level position
with this group (in a slightly lower pay range), and feel I have a
better than average chance of getting the job. But the general
attitude of many manufacturing folks is that the job they are doing is
all they will ever do, because "nothing ever comes their way". You
have to go after it, with some help and advice. I encourage managers
to help thee folks grow because there is a wealth of untapped abilities
at this site, probably the same at countless other locations as well.
Jerry
|