Imagine getting hired at a company for one job but being told that you would be promoted to another position in the company “soon.” How long would you assume they meant by “soon”?

In this story, one person was in that exact situation, and he assumed “soon” meant 3 months. He was wrong, but he still hoped that he would be promoted eventually. Then the company hired someone else for the job, a really nice guy, but a guy who didn’t know the job all that well, and it showed.

It could be hard being nice to someone who is in the position you thought you were promised, but in this story, the employee steps up, is helpful and even becomes friends with the new hire.

But eventually, he just can’t handle it anymore and stops helping as much as he used to. Years later, looking back, he feels responsible for getting the guy fired.

Is he responsible? Let’s read the whole story to decide.

I was promised a position, but management hired an unqualified person for that position instead. He was looking up for me to support him, but I made sure it was known that he was unqualified and got him fired. AITAH who got him fired?

This happened like 10 years ago. I work in automotive industry. I’m 48(m) now. I live in Europe.

Here it goes. 10 years ago, I was hired at this global firm as a product manager, but promised to be promoted to head of the department soon.

At the time I thought soon meant like in 3 months. Sadly no.

After 4 months I went to my director and asked what was going on.

He was never going to get that promotion.

What I was told, apparently, that I was doing a good job, too good in fact that they’d rather keep me in place and hire someone out of the firm as the new head.

I was furious.

I talked to my fellow managers and they all told me that unfortunately that was the culture at the firm there. Rather than promoting a competent employee to a position of power, it was their intention to make sure the system was working (even with an overqualified employee) even with a less qualified department head.

The new guy was nice but clueless.

I knew this new (hired) guy and welcomed him at first. He sounded reasonable and manageable.

But we had two major product launches in the pipeline and no matter what I did, in every step he proved he was just incompetent. He was foreign to the business.

We were friendly at first. We got together socially, had dinners and such.

But it bugged me that he was asking me for pointers in high level meetings, constantly.

He got sick of helping this guy.

I was sympathetic at first, in the end he was new to the firm so I gave him a lead way.

But still, I had spent 15 years at the industry and it bothered me that I’d be required to give pointers to someone who was essentially inhabiting (what was supposed to be) my position.

This kept going on for a while but then and I started to feel like a was feeding this guy information so he’d make himself look good to senior management.

Casually, he’d ask me every critical decision and my points on it.

He mentioned the problem to the new guy.

It was just bugging me; he was just not doing his job. He was taking credit of my ideas and representing them as though they were his.

I just could not argue this infront of senior management, so I stayed silent.

Afterwards, I talked to him about this and the funny thing he said to me was that I was there to propose options, and he was there to approve them… He thought that he’d not have to offer an idea of his own at all.

So, I decided to play this strategically.

OP refused to help as much as he used to.

I didn’t hold off any information, but in high level meetings where he’d ask me to lead and answer critical questions, I said to him there that he’s got all the information he needed to make an informed decision and that I would not step into his authority, in front of all the audience.

I told him there that I would not take the lead where it was his job to lead.

I wanted to show everyone that he was not fulfilling his function.

He’d sat in silence afterwards and could not contribute to the conversation at all.

He definitely got his point across.

This gone on for like two years, with tensions rising.

Eventually all senior management started asking me what I’d propose as course for action, rather than asking him. It was clear to everyone then that he did not have an original idea, and it showed.

Not soon after, one of our directors (in confidence) told me that this guy was warned by HR and would probably be let go if he didn’t step up to the task. It was apparent to everyone then that he couldn’t fulfill his task which he was hired to do.

I was told he was given a year.

He thought he’d finally get that promotion.

Well, long story short. After two years, he was eventually let go.

A couple of weeks after that, there I was waiting to be (finally) promoted, I was discreetly talking with one of the senior sales managers and he told me, bluntly, that I was not in the mix for the position. Apparently, I was perceived as aggressive and not complaint.

I was disappointed, but it didn’t surprise me.

That was the turning point for me.

He finally realized why he wasn’t going to get promoted.

I realized that the senior management were looking for a complaint guy and not a guy who a confronts the system and asks questions.

Apparently, that guy was the ideal person they were looking for.

I finally saw that.

Soon after I gave my notice, and within two weeks I moved on to a job that pays double.

So here is the question. Now I’m older, I fear that my ambitions got the best of me. Maybe I could have been kinder to him. Maybe there was a better way to resolve it all. Even though indirectly, AITAH that got him fired?

He didn’t get him fired. The guy had years to learn the job and failed.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this post about a hardworking employee whose management refuses to give them one single break.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks he only did one thing wrong.

Another person agrees that he should’ve quit sooner.

This person points out why he wasn’t going to get promoted.

Another person thinks he can learn from this experience.

He may feel like he got the new hire fired, but he didn’t. He simply stopped covering for him. The guy had literal years to learn the job, but he failed.

Clearly, OP would’ve been better at the job, but that was never going to happen for him.

I agree that he should’ve looking for a new job years earlier, but he was delusional enough to believe that he would eventually get promoted. It’s too bad they misled him like that.