difficult work situation need help

slinuxuzer

A little background, I live in a very depressed area, finding a replacement job will take time, I am 27, working as a systems administrator 60K a year.

I have been employed as a permanent contractor assigned to a client who has decided to hire several of us, I have not received a raise or performance review since starting. We have all been informed by the contractor and the client that if we don't take the position it will be filled eventually and we will be laid off, we've been told we will be offered roughly what we make now and that it won't be negotiable, the benefits will be better, more paperwork and red tape will be included. I can pretty much deal with all of this.

The issue is I have a good boss, except for one key issue, its being made very clear to me that he values seniority above all else, he literally told me that someone with x20 times the skill set would not progress to a higher level than someone who has seniority. I have worked myself to a frazel at this position, working nights, weekends, traveling 15 weeks this year, I spent two months on the road bailing the company out of a crack, when a major resource sold them on a 1 million dollar vmware implementation and quit once the equipment showed up, through all this assistance I've been giving to other facility's I've even managed to surpass my metrics and virtualization goals for the year.

So when the positions were listed the other systems admin, who works with unix, has been there 8 years, and is best friends with the manager, gets a job 4 levels above me, we have close to the same amount of time in the field and without a doubt my skill set is much higher than his. This other admin constantly tells me how little he does, he doesn't update his skills either.

So what do I do now? I know most of you will say bide my time and get new employment, but I really want it to work here, its a good job, and I get to work with very expensive equipment, but I am on fire, I am losing sleep like never before, I've even considered just turning in my notice and leaving it at that.

I think seniority is an unfair practice, as long as I and the seniors work there I'll never get seniority and their dug in, I can't compete in a seniority contest or who has the most kids, or who the boss goes fishing with nor would I want to.

Any and all advice is welcome.

Turgon

slinuxuzer wrote: »

A little background, I live in a very depressed area, finding a replacement job will take time, I am 27, working as a systems administrator 60K a year.

I have been employed as a permanent contractor assigned to a client who has decided to hire several of us, I have not received a raise or performance review since starting. We have all been informed by the contractor and the client that if we don't take the position it will be filled eventually and we will be laid off, we've been told we will be offered roughly what we make now and that it won't be negotiable, the benefits will be better, more paperwork and red tape will be included. I can pretty much deal with all of this.

The issue is I have a good boss, except for one key issue, its being made very clear to me that he values seniority above all else, he literally told me that someone with x20 times the skill set would not progress to a higher level than someone who has seniority. I have worked myself to a frazel at this position, working nights, weekends, traveling 15 weeks this year, I spent two months on the road bailing the company out of a crack, when a major resource sold them on a 1 million dollar vmware implementation and quit once the equipment showed up, through all this assistance I've been giving to other facility's I've even managed to surpass my metrics and virtualization goals for the year.

So when the positions were listed the other systems admin, who works with unix, has been there 8 years, and is best friends with the manager, gets a job 4 levels above me, we have close to the same amount of time in the field and without a doubt my skill set is much higher than his. This other admin constantly tells me how little he does, he doesn't update his skills either.

So what do I do now? I know most of you will say bide my time and get new employment, but I really want it to work here, its a good job, and I get to work with very expensive equipment, but I am on fire, I am losing sleep like never before, I've even considered just turning in my notice and leaving it at that.

I think seniority is an unfair practice, as long as I and the seniors work there I'll never get seniority and their dug in, I can't compete in a seniority contest or who has the most kids, or who the boss goes fishing with nor would I want to.

Any and all advice is welcome.

Seniority is what it is Im afraid. You have clearly worked hard and applied yourself, but if the other guy has 8 years in on the company that is a long time and its not unnatural to be rewarded for that. You have to decide if the framework for advancement there meets your goals and also consider if you actually like it there. When you throw your lot in for a few years with a company the relationship with a boss is very important, and from the sounds of things you have a good one. I think you are overworking, and if the advancement is mostly down to elapsed time you need to make sure you dont take too much on, so thats one discussion to have with your boss, particularly if you are not going to get promotion or raises on the back of simply working very hard and getting useful stuff done. As for your options, I hear Texas is a decent state in terms of IT jobs.

universalfrost

sounds like you need to start looking for a new job, maybe within the same company but a different division, or just start looking external to the company.

with a boss like that you won't get a chance to succeed in your current position... I am in the same boat at my current (and also the last job) where I was number X in line for the promotion and I had to wait for someone to die or retire before I would have a crack at the promotion. For those that are motivated to succeed this is a killer. You need to get out of there, but be careful that you don't do what i did and just exchange one bad job for another. Make sure to really question prospective employers when you go to an interview. I have already turned down 2 jobs because I asked the right questions during my part of the interview and the answers I got told me I would be in the same boat as currently... ...

do yourself a favor and work on your certs and or school and start honing that resume and you will get a promotion, but it might be at a different company.