If a co-worker, who has significantly less amount of years of experience and knowledge in the same field as you are (e.g: 2 v. 6)but gets a promotion (out of nowhere) and becomes your supervisor, what would you do? Dealing with incompetent mangement is one thing, but I cannot report to a person who has far less experience, qualification and knowledge than I do!

This is more of a personal thing but just wanted to get an insight as to what others would do in a situation like this...
I don't know what to do anymore... Thanks for reading.

We run into this issue from time to time because we are a family owned bank and a lot of nepatism (sp?) goes on here. So and So's son gets promoted because of his last name and not based on qualifications.

For me, it's not a big deal, but I've never had to report directly to a "family" member.

Just one thing to do if you are not happy about it, update your resume. What are you going to do, walk into HR and inform them your supervisor is incompetent.

This happened to me a few years back and the person in charge thought it would be a good idea to have all of us around and asked us what we thought about it. Everyone but me said nothing. I said just what you said - they do not have the experience or knowledge to do the job, (he asked) but that I would would work with them. She quit after a month, I guess because we 'let' her do her job, tasks a supervisor should do that we had been taking up the slack doing...

Experience and knowledge are but two of the basic requirements for a promotion to a supervisory role. Look inside yourself and ask if this person is better suited to supervising others than you are. If you're absolutely positive that doesn't come into play here, then update your resume and move on. If there's a chance you could learn something by observing this person do their new job, give it a bit of time. If you still feel the same in a month, start your job hunt.

As a person who has been in a hiring and promoting position before... It doesn't always come down to experience and knowledge. A lot of it is attitude and the ABILITY to learn, not necessarily already having the knowledge.

I think you have answered your own question. Unless you can change your attitude, the BEST thing you can do is go somewhere else.

Give the person a chance. I was recently promoted above someone with a lot more experience, and things were tenuous out of the gate, but when they realized that I respected their experience, was on their team, and that being supervisor just means I have a different (not always fun) set of day-to-day responsibilities, we actually developed a very good working relationship.

In other words, don't let a minor blow to your ego cost you what could turn out to be a good work situation.

There are two other factors that, like it or not, often come into play in these situations.
One is money. It may be cheaper to promote the less experienced person. Every business, including banking, is all about the bottom line.
The other, like it or not, can sometimes be age. Promotions include a hope that the employee will be around for awhile and might eve be groomed for further advancement.
fwiw, I think Joker analyzed it best for you.

OP here.

Thanks all for your inputs. What bothered me most was that the management bent the internal policy by doing this when the employee wasn't even due for an evaluation. He's been working here for only 7 months. What's even more surprising is this was an "off the radar" type of promotion where no one else knows about (I, somehow, found out). Not making an official announcement to the group.

I guess my question would be how did management bend the internal policy and how would you know this. Over my career, I have known of several instances where an individual was brought into a bank and shortly after they were promoted or started a new department.

Sometimes management decides you'll do your best work by staying in your current position. A recurring error in management decision making for a long time is taking someone that's good at doing a job and promoting them to being in charge of others doing that job. There isn't always a connection between those two positions, and what makes you good at your job doesn't always equate to also being able to be a good manager and/or leader. We have internally promoted a lot of people that didn't seem to possess as much skill or experience as others, because the person was able to lead and showed evidence of other management skills.

When I applied for this job, I was a mortgage loan processor with no compliance experience (except a few years of learning all the wrong things to do ), and was up against someone who had been with the company twice as long, and a lot more senior in age. It ruffled a lot of feathers when I got the position, and he's no longer with us. My boss has stood by her decision for the last three years (thankfully!).

"We have internally promoted a lot of people that didn't seem to possess as much skill or experience as others, because the person was able to lead and showed evidence of other management skills."

This.

as a manager, my job is not to know how to do everything and be the best at each task...my job is to manage people, and make sure that i have the best people in the positions to do everything and to give them the tools for them to do their tasks...and then get out of the way and let them do it...

i question how, if this has not been announced, that this person is now your boss and you are now reporting to them...you can't report to someone if they don't tell you to...

Try and be a team player by working with this person. They may have some reservations about managing someone with more experience. I was promoted as a manager over people who had been on the job longer than me and it was quite a transition for me. Once they all realized that all I wanted to do was the best job I could for the bank and for them, it worked out quite well.

I am hoping all works out for you.

While I see the point, as a manager you are taught to surround yourself with people smarter than you. As a manager I want to hire someone who is going to make me look good.

As a worker, I don't necessarily want to see someone without the skillset get promoted over me. But it depends on what management has in the works for that person. Are they managing, or doing? These require different skillsets.

When John Scully took over Apple, he didn't know how to build a Mac, but he knew a thing or two about managing a company.

Based on how Apple turned out with him as the CEO, one might disagree Andy

I once had a manager who could not associate the regulation with the act it implemented. She embarassed herself and our department in quite a few meetings.

Anon2 sez: I agree with most of the other posters here, and just want to chime in that you may still be able to save your job. No offense intended, but try to take your perspective out of this situation for a moment. Step back. Who says this person is less qualified than you? Well, you do, sure, but who there seems to care what you think about this matter? Your institution’s management has promoted this person and your sour grapes about it are your own problem. I’ve had very similar experiences, but from the other side: being promoted after 5 months on the job and being the supervisor of people who had been there 3 to 7 years. There were grumblings and grumpiness, and as an employee I outlasted every one of those people. I’ve had fantastic, key-player staff members who were nearly twice my age and who had 5 times more experience than me. If they had walked out due to their own ego's injury at my series of promotions, it would have been stupid (my loss, their loss, the bank’s loss, the customers’ loss…). It’s not just about what looks good on a resume. Get over yourself.

And if management knew this is how you viewed them:



... I can see why they were quick to pass you up. Sounds like a little inflection and possible attitude adjustment may be needed.