So, in case you’re interested and in case you’ve read all my allusions to having left my job, my last day was Friday. I was a product manager for Medicare health plans. The reason I left is as follows:
I’d been working on getting promoted for about six months. One day a few weeks ago, during a meeting with my supervisor, he told me I was ready - they just had to highlight my accomplishments and I could finally get the promised promotion. Then manager chooses to leave. But new manager tells me the exact same thing two days later - “Overly, you’re ready for promotion. We just need to make sure your accomplishments are recognized.” “Awesome!” says I. “Let me know how I can help.”
Fast forward four days - just four days. I’m called into a director’s office along with my manager. I’m wondering all the time, is this it? Is this my promotion? Because I know that to get a promotion, I’d have to work under the director, not my current manager and we just reorged, so it makes sense that this would happen like this. The discussion started out, “Overly, we think your work is wonderful. These past few months, you’ve proven yourself not just a subject matter expert, but the industry expert on [section of Medicare you’ve been working on].” Yay! But it was not to be. Then came the big “But,”. Apparently, the big “but” was that although I was the leading expert in this particular niche, our senior director had decided to promote his protege - who has exactly one year of corporate and Medicare experience compared to my nine years and three years, respectively - instead and wanted me to report to her, making me not only not a senior product manager, but subordinate to a senior product manager instead of a director. Even worse, they wanted me to eventually own a product I detest and that I’m relatively certain will fail. I said this - diplomatically, of course - and was told that my wishes would be taken into consideration and that “nothing was set in stone and that’s why we told you first.”
Riiight… I turned in my resignation the next day and was greeted with total shock and panic. Apparently it was expected that I would refuse, but not that I would resign. They thought I’d protest, then play ball. I was called in to “work things out,” and I was told that it would just be for a little while until the senior product manager I was to report to “moved on to better things,” which is code for “gets another promotion for stroking the senior director’s ego.” Then I would get my promotion.
I pressed and I probed, looking for signs that my work was less than quality. I asked for honest feedback and was told that my work was excellent and that I actually deserved a promotion - they just weren’t going to give it to me because apparently they had a succession plan that didn’t include me until the next phase of reorgs. Given the pace with which reorganizations happen in that company, I thought it was more likely that management would change again and that the promotion would once more slip through my fingers.
Ah, well. I’m glad I left. I’ve had four offers to consult since I announced my resignation and two full-time job offers. But I chose to take some time off instead. And I feel naked. Vulnerable. Exposed. I hate it. I hate getting to age 33 and suddenly having to reassess what I want to do, dammit. I was not only product manager, but marketing manager and brand manager to four products. Now I have to figure out what I want - do I want to be a writer? A product manager? Brand manager? Marketing manager? What about my kid? My husband? Just when I thought I had everything figured out, a schedule down pat that fit my family, it gets blown all to hell.
I could have stayed. But this is the second time this has happened - nepotism is rife within my former company, particularly in product management. If you don’t kiss the right ass and aren’t hand-picked by the right person, you don’t advance. Period. Oh, you’re an industry expert? Big freakin’ deal. The senior director didn’t hire you, so get used to your current situation because it’s not going to change until you pucker up.
I’m going to start writing again and resurrect the company I used to run. I’m also going to research until my little brain explodes so I can figure out what to do. Maybe this is what should have happened a while ago. I keep telling myself that this is an opportunity. I didn’t fail - I did the right thing. I was told over and over again before I left that my department was proud of me for refusing to bend over. Even my manager commended me, but he’s up the senior director’s ass, too. Christ, I feel awful. This blows. The only saving grace is that my department is up a creek without me and as of today, two others have handed in their resignations. I was also notified by a friend in HR today that this “issue” is now being investigated. I doubt it’ll turn anything up, but I at least like to think that the pattern has been identified as a problem.
