Promotion issue

[lyra_silvertongue]

This is kind of a strange situation, but one of my friends told me that I may possible have a lawsuit on my hands and I'm trying to find out more about laws regarding employment and promotions.

Up until last week I worked at a retail store that is part of a large national chain. I started working there as a part time employee in August of 2005 and in August of 2006 I was promoted to a full-time management position. Our store only had 5-7 employees at a time (usually) and the position I held was basically a third key position, an assistant assistant manager. I was responsible for opening and closing shifts, daily store tasks, some paperwork and managerial duties. In October of 2006 my store manager was transfered to a store in New York. At this point, the assistant manager was promoted to the store manager. I was told by my store manager that I was going to be promoted to the assistant manager position, which would have included a pay increase as well as more responsibilities. I kept waiting to hear word on this promotion, and every time I asked my manager she told me that she was waiting for approval from the district manager. Around this time, we hired another employee who was hired in at the third key position that I also worked. In our store, it's only necessary to have one person in this position. It was assumed that she was hired into that position since I would soon be promoted to assistant manager. This new employee started causing problems with the other employees, not performing her job adequately, calling in often, lying to the manager about other employees (her and the manager were friends prior to her getting hired), etc. The work environment became very tense when it had previously been very laid back and enjoyable. After a few months of this behavior, this employee left her full time position at my store and went started working somewhere else. She remained employed at my store on a very part-time basis. The general consensus amongst all the employees was not kind towards her as she made everyone else's jobs more difficult. I continued to do my job through all this, performing my own duties as well as picking up things that our manager was failing to do. I was definitely working in the capacity as the assistant manager from October 2006 on, although I was not promoted into the position or getting paid for that position. At one point I was told that our district manager just wanted to wait a little while to find out if I was going to continue working hard or to see if I was just working hard to get the position. After all this time, I was getting awfully frustrated with working so hard without the recognition or pay. A fellow co-worked asked my manager why I had never been promoted into the assistant manager position. My co-worker was told that the district manager said that she "had her reasons" for not promoting from within. I was rather upset by this and decided that I was going to leave my place of employment for multiple reasons, that being one of them. Now that I have left, the girl that had been working very part-time up until this point, that no one gets along with, is being promoted into the assistant manager position. I know for a fact that I was better at my job than she is, and I have the agreement of every other employee on that.

Do I have any kind of legal recourse in this situation?

[msg]

[I was rather upset by this and decided that I was going to leave my place of employment for multiple reasons]


Normally once you do this the issue is over; their acts were bad management but not actually illegal. Not sure I see a suit here? Maybe others do...

Unless you could show it was an actual agreement to promote, and you relied on it, perhaps. Even then it would be tough.

[I have the agreement of every other employee on that]

If you have no material evidence, these employee will deny the agreement in Court because they have to keep their jobs.

[lyra_silvertongue]

As far as I was concerned it was an agreement to promote and I was relying on it.

If I had known I wasn't going to get promoted I would have left the job months ago.

But I don't have any material evidence, and that's what I'm concerned about.

That would be tough. You may want counsel to review the whole history and help you decide.

Originally Posted by lyra_silvertongue As far as I was concerned it was an agreement to promote and I was relying on it. If I had known I wasn't going to get promoted I would have left the job months ago. But I don't have any material evidence, and that's what I'm concerned about.

Go back to see the guy who promised your promotion and bring a small recorder with you, try to record the conversation between you and him/her. This record will be a material evidence.

[able1]

We normally recommend you check with your state attorney general's office or the local police dept. before taping--See also "taping phone calls" on our site-- http://www.worldlawdirect.com/article/1042 -- if you can't tape calls then you normally cannot tape conversations--if you can tape calls then check with your State Attorney General for the laws regarding in-person conversations--