The game, dangling carrot.

Long story. I've been a senior analyst (IT) for 5 years. I've been training new analysts, helping other analysts with their questions/issues, standing up new procedures, creating and updating knowledge base articles, working on projects... duties that are listed under an expert/lead level.

For the past 3 years, I've been receiving high marks (exceeds expectations). I've been given a year long "highly visible" project involving different departments in a different region, it went smoothly. I also obtained my MBA with honors within these 3 years. (Yes, it is from a university in my area that has a campus and several sport teams 🙂)

Last fall, I was moved to another group (with a new supervisor) that is known for more complicated and "delicate" work. Historically, a move to this group also meant a promotion. Fast forward a few months, I was informed there is no promotion for this group anymore. Ok, great, I'll continue to kick butt. Another couple of months down the road, I find out spots for promotions are drastically cut to 1 to 2 promotions a year for the whole department. This really got me down because I've been excelling for years without a bump, other than 5% pay raise per year, and we are a very large group. The last round of promotions was at the beginning of this year, which must have been the last "large" round of promotions.

Since I am new to this group, I've been basically "reset." I've been told I do not qualify for a promotion because I am no longer an expert in my area, and my history of exceeding expectations does not matter.

Honestly, I feel cheated of a promotion. It didn't happen while I was exceeding expectations for 3 years, doing jobs listed for lead/experts for 5 years. It's not going to happen in this new group because of decreased of opportunities of promotions and I'm basically a newbie in the group.

I no longer have the drive to exceed, I just want to do enough to keep my job, I don't care if I get a 3% raise. I worked hard for a promotion, not a measly 5% raise.