People, this is a zombie thread. Crab Rangoon hasn’t posted on the SDMB since February 2013. I really doubt that he or she is still reading our advice.
Hell yes it happened to me. I was in my position for 25 years, the responsibilities grew and grew over time and eventually were too much for one person. So they took my unit and split it in two, and I did roughly half of my old job and a new hire did the other half at one step lower in rank. After a few years she quits and goes to work for a federal agency, and is succeeded by a guy and they eventually make his rank equal to mine. OK, fine. So a big department reorg comes about, they create a new position one level up from mine to be the manager of both halves of my old job. Okay, so with 33 years experience and actually doing the same job at a lower level, you’d think I had a chance. Not so fast! They hired the girl who had half my job and left just to get her back.
How do I react? Differently than I would if I wasn’t eligible to retire. I do my job as best I can, but I talk to my old subordinate/new boss as little as humanly possible. The guys who made that decision are on my permanent shit list. When you know you’re never going to get promoted and are a few years away from walking out the door, it’s hard to give a shit.
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A few times, sure. If it doesn’t happen to you at least once you’re either very lucky or very lazy.
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You get over it. Not everyone can get the promotion. You’ll feel better soon.
If you really feel you got a bum steer or need to move upwards, look for another job. But maybe you didn’t; maybe the other candidate really WAS better. Maybe you can learn from them.
As the OP has likely resolved any issues related to this thread and moved on, I’m going to close this.