A feel weeks ago, I posted here about how an obviously unqualified colleague got suspiciously promoted. I have some update to the situation. I believe I have figured out how he got promoted.
Recap: I recently found out one of my colleagues in another team got promoted to lead his team after his boss left. Only I know that he is very unqualified for the job because I was in the same course as him back in uni. His grades was shit and he never really took his studies seriously. Somehow he was promoted instead of those who had FCH and started the same time as him.
At first I thought he was promoted because everyone in his team likes him, but it seems there is a lot more to the story. I recently talked to a guy from his team about his new boss, who took the entire week off of CNY while I was already back in office on Tuesday. To no surprise, his teammates all spoke very highly of him (corporate politeness and all that) but when I pushed further and ask how come he enjoying long vacation while his team already started work, I found out the truth.
Turns out, he is not local and went back to his hometown for CNY. This is news to me because I couldn’t tell from his accents, we only had like 5 past interactions, and frankly, you will assume foreign students usually study a lot hard than he did. Here is the thing, his ex-boss who left the company is his countryman. Coincidence? I think not! Suddenly everything makes sense to me now.
Apparently, the official reason for his promotion according to his teammate was that he led a few initiatives that made the clients and big bosses really happy. But from what I gathered, he only came up with the ideas, and got his teammates to do all the work. I bet he didn’t even lift finger, and his compatriot boss probably just gave him all the credit. I am the least xenophobic guy I know, but the fact is locals haven’t been treated fair. Is this something I can submit an anonymous complaint to MOM?
Honestly, at this point even if they offer his position to me, I also don’t want to stay in this shithole. I already sent out a few applications two weeks ago. Ever since I found out about the fraud’s promotion, I haven’t OT a single hour. Yesterday my boss had an one-on-one with me and asked me if I needed help because I haven’t been keeping up with the deadlines on some tasks. This pissed me right off because I was being hyper-productive for years and no one batted an eye. Now I rest a bit you come tell me I slow?! He told me I should keep my teammates updated if I can’t push things out in time.. dude if they know what they are doing then they need my updates meh?
Earlier last week one of my most useless teammate came up with a simple idea in a meeting, my boss was praising her in front of everyone. I could’ve thought of that in 2 minutes, and some how this is the highlight of her career. If it were me he won’t praise me like that. It’s damn disgusting to see, he is in his 40s and she 20s. He seems to be easily impressed by anyone but me. My last straw was that when I told him I was bothered by how the other guy who was obviously unqualified was promoted, my boss had the audacity to tell me that I already have the ‘same’ technical level as the fraud for the role, and so does another dude from my own team, but he doesn’t think I’m ‘ready’ yet. To rub salt on the wound, he told me I can learn from my other teammate for some project management skills. What a joke! That guy didn’t even graduate from a big 3 uni. I’ve never seen him worked past 6 pm a day in my 3 years here, and somehow my boss thinks he’s doing better than me?
It is clear to me now that I’m not even my bosses’ first choice at promotion, now I seriously doubt my boss’s ability to manage a team if he cannot even identify his best worker. Honestly, this entire company is doomed. I just hope this isn’t the norm everywhere else.
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