Hi all, new to this website, looking for some advice on an employment crisis I am in at the moment. I started off at a new job 2 years ago working in a team of 4 plus 1 supervisor.

Over time I have been given additional responsibilities, taught new things etc. I am the sort of person who takes pride in my work and enjoys helping others to make their day easier. Go to work, do the job, get paid, go home, minimal fuss.

As time has gone by, my supervisor has all but given me his job. All he does is sits down and makes a thousand pointless phone calls, send irrelevant emails, eat as much food and tries sleeze on with the office girls. I cannot see how he justifies his job / salary. While I have never wanted his job, I just wish my supervisor would actually do some real work for once.

When he is away or on annual leave everyone relies on me to step up as 2IC (second in charge), something I am skilled and happy enough to pursue. All I have been getting is compliments on how extremely valuable and efficient I am performing both the supervisory job functions as well as getting my own normal duties completed.

I have the support of every other employee in my own and other departments to knock this guy out of a job, my supervisor honestly cannot perform his own job anywhere near as good as I can do it. Best part of this is it has been noticed at a higher level (where it counts), I have been praised on my hard work and promised a promotion to his job (they want to give him another one) but he won't take the other offer. The managers have said they can't fire him (technically done nothing wrong by his employment contract) or force him into another job function as that's the one he signed up for.

As my supervisor does nothing and I feel I have earned my place there, it's starting to stress me out and I just can't work as hard knowing that he is just sitting there doing nothing. When he is not there I can proudly say I love my job! Silly but true!

I want to get another job where I don't have to put up with his laziness, but don't want to miss out on the promotion if it ever does come up.

Could someone please give me some advice on what to do?

I just don't see much you can do about your situation other then just wait. You obviously hold a lot of resentment towards your supervisor but if you try to push anything along to get what you want, it will probably put you in an unfavourable light. Not exactly what you want if you want to maintain your good standing within the company (as you say you are).

I mean, if you were completely cutthroat you could probably undermine your supervisor's standing by bad-mouthing him. From what you say you do not hold him in high regard but he is still your supervisor and that is the status quo the way I see it. Many probably have been in your position and have had to wait it out while keeping a smile of good nature on their face until the day appears when the supervisor takes a step up and you step into his shoes.

Obviously I can't give you the advice you seem to want. Your position is what it is.

Tick

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If you do get another job offer, then you can leverage it with your current job. If your current managers want to promote you, they will find a way, but they don't need to promote you if there's no risk of losing you. You can't threaten to quit the job, because you will be jobless, so your employers won't bite on the empty threat. It's a tough world out there, so unfortunately leveraging another job offer is the way to go.

If you're not comfortable with that idea, then come up with a proposal with your managers. How about suggesting a co-managerial position where you're equal to your current supervisor. Therefore, you would split the supervision duties and get equal pay. They can also freeze his salary and continue to give you raises. But again, unless you can justify a raise, they won't bite on it. Unfortunately, threatening to leave the company is almost the only way to get the raise/promotion.

Yes he could do what you suggest, but do you really think that is what he/she needs. It seems to me that this person is stagnating in his/her job and, the best approach would be to put resumes out there and get a managerial position that suits his/her suitabilities.

And you don't know for sure that you would even get that promotion. Often people who think they should be getting promotions often find that others get it, Moved in from somewhere else, or another one of your team may get it because they are friends with someone.

And you don't know for sure that you would even get that promotion. Often people who think they should be getting promotions often find that others get it, Moved in from somewhere else, or another one of your team may get it because they are friends with someone.

Life is full of "what if's" what if this happened, what if that happened. And you can move to another job with another company ( more popular way to get promotions, or you can wait for this one, or you can worry that your current company will figure you may have already been influenced by the old boss too much