Is it possible to express dissatisfaction at work without being a complainer?

[SuperDuck]

I'm not fond of people that complain at work. I'm not fond of people that complain in general. Personally I think it's an unbecoming personality trait that reflects poorly on the complainer. As such, I do my very best to not complain, and especially not at work. I do the best job I can do, I work hard, and I hope that my actions speak loudly enough that my supervisors note what I do and award me accordingly.

I currently feel, however, that this is not the case. Where do you draw the line of being your own advocate vs. complaining? I don't feel it's my place to talk to my supervisors about the work ethics of some of my co-workers, but I've seen them get promoted regardless of the lackluster jobs that they do. In one particular instance someone is doing the same work I was doing a month ago, yet they have a higher title and get paid much more than I do. (When I say much more, I don't mean a few grand. We're talking five figures more.) I trained this person to do what I used to do, I come over and troubleshoot and fix their problems (which is damn near daily), and to be 100% I don't feel that they're doing a very good job taking over my former post.

My direct supervisor, I believe, is in my corner. It his his supervisor, the department head, however, that calls all the shots. The people that have been getting raises and promotions have been his long time co-workers and personal friends of his who have settled into their "protected" status at work. These are the type of people who don't do something because they don't want to. This drives me NUTS. Absolutely bonkers. We don't get paid to do what we want to do, we get paid to do what we're told to do.

On the one hand, I'm happy that I have a job. I feel that I'm fortunate to have a job. I feel that it would be foolish to start complaining at work about my job, especially in an economy where a lot of people are out of luck. In the grand scheme of things I LIKE my job. I would be hard pressed to find a better place for me to be working at in this part of the country for what I do.

At the same time, I feel under-appreciated and overlooked while people around me do inferior work and get promotions.

The annual reviews/promotions/merit increase meeting for our supervisors just happened. I'll find out what I got before the end of the year. I'm eligible for a promotion, but I have the distinct feeling that it's not going to happen.

Maybe I just need a hug.

(Also, I am well aware that this post is one big complaint. I've been suppressing this one for a few months now, and it's just starting to really get at me. I don't ever recall starting an honest to goodness rant thread.)

[stratovani]

Originally Posted by SuperDuck

At the same time, I feel under-appreciated and overlooked while people around me do inferior work and get promotions.

Then complain! IMO there's nothing wrong with complaining. If you don't complain about thing then they'll get the idea that you're satisfied with things, which in your case you don't seem to be. Sometimes in life you've got to stand up for yourself. But be diplomatic about it. It's not complainers they don't like, it's the whiners.

[Jared Lash]

The short answer is: unless you're the boss, no.

The long answer is: it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

[HollowBassman]

Yes, but hide the matches and have an alibi.

[iamlowsound]

Originally Posted by HollowBassman

Yes, but hide the matches and have an alibi.

If you move me one more time, I will burn the building down.

lowsound

[mike_v_s]

When you are looking at walking into managment's office and (politely) telling them that they are promoting the wrong people/overlooking the right people, you must be prepared for some ****. No matter how correct you are, you will be calling their judgment into question and few people really like that. If they are the kind of people that promote favorites regardless of value to the company, chances are pretty good they either don't care or aren't intelligent enough to realize it.

If it gets you that bad (an understandable reaction), say something, but be prepared for all manner of retribution.

On the broader topic, I'm not a fan of complainers, either. Unfortunately, sometimes things need to be said for the good fo the compnay. I've had to report a fellow coworker twice now (the owner's brother-in-law, no less). The first time, he was underperforming badly enough that the client was looking at dropping our services. The second time, he verbally gave me a status report that, had I acted on it, would have opened us up for some serious liability. I took that one personally.

In situations like that, you HAVE to tell the management. Even if it makes you look like your whining, the bottom line is that you need to look out for the company's best interests. It's what you get paid to do. I work for a small firm, so a screw up can lose us a client and future work. That can lead someone losing a job in the future and I'll be damned if it's gonna be me.

Mike

[Lucky Strike]

Getting promoted is more of a popularity contest then it is a hard-working achievement. If you walk around hi-fiving peeps, chatting and buying doughnuts for the VP's then your on your way to the top.

[BassXgirl]

Ugh! Work politics.

Moving up seems to have less to do with working hard than it does chatting up the bosses and appearing to be 'happy and carefree'.

Usually the problem with this scenario, is that the people who goof off ARE the happy carefree ones while the hard workers are too busy doing work to have time to chit chat with the bosses.

Overall, I don't think that speaking up in a respectful and CALM way, is the same thing as complaining. You are just speaking up for yourself and for some amount of fairness. You also want to be sure that your boss IS, in fact, noticing the hard work you do. So with that said, I would try to minimize naming names if possible, and instead focus on reminding the boss of all that YOU do for him/her.

[fdeck]

Does your company have a formal review process? Written job descriptions? Those things can be your friends. If the answer is yes, then those processes may be a way to pin your boss down, in a friendly way, on exactly what you can deliver in order to earn that promotion.

It worked for me a couple years ago. My boss needed to show his managers that he was promoting me based on objective criteria, and in return, he made it happen.

[MakiSupaStar]

Generally complaining is useless unless you provide solutions to the problems you're complaining about. However in your situation you need to make it known that you are seeking promotion. You don't do that by complaining, but by letting it be known, very clearly, and making yourself an obvious asset. Now exactly how you go about that I haven't the foggiest.

[thumpbass1]

Good old office politics, ya just gotta' love it. Never ever run to upper management to complain about folks who are in their inner circle of favor just because they seem to be unworthy of their station in your eyes. You may be 100 per cent on target, but you will be branded as a troublemaker.

I rocked the boat once against a manager who was and maybe still is a high functioning career alcoholic. The clueless Sot spent most of his time away in his office cut off from the division he was supposed to be managing. My fondest memory of him was having him come down to my department in a rage with the year end report for shipping costs being nearly double of what they were for the previous year. The reason was that we'd opened up a huge new store in another major city and it was our warehouse facility that had to handle all of the parcel and out of state long distance,and international shipments for the entire operation! We'd doubled our sales volume! I let him give me the " What the hell is wrong with you guys?!!!!" speech and I quietly reminded him that we had expanded operations into another major city and hence our buisness volume increased, and thus so did the costs related to processing the orders streaming in. He shut up right then, and stomped off in a red faced rage. That was just one small example of his being out of touch with reality, but by lordy he was best bud's with the top management.

Well I complained and it cost me I do believe, because I rocked the boat. I became a troublemaker in their eyes and when an opportunity came for them to get rid of me, it was done. Not because of any incompetence on my part, but a technicality they were able to exploit. He's still there, but I am not. So I would advise you to be careful about making complaints. It takes tact and skill, and diplomacy to navigate around the sharks that swim in the corporate pool, when you happen to be a smaller fish in the corporate food chain.

[Selta]

SuperDuck,
Did you read my mind? That sounds excatly like my current situation.
No, you didn't have to read my mind, that's generally how these things go.
Everyone else summed it up nicely. If you're the one who's always going to the boss, and generally chit-chatting with them, going to the water cooler/smoke break/lunch with them, you're well on your way to being promoted.
However, it sounds like you're more like me. Thinking that very hard work and an astounding dedication to perfection of that work will move you up.
Sorry, wrong. It's all about ass kissing. They couldn't care less about you and your hard work.

In my case, my direct supervisor isn't out of touch with reality or anything. He just basically sucks at his job. Our manager is actually totally cool, but he never gets to see my ideas or work results. This is because my supervisor takes everything I do and come up with, and present it as if he did it or came up with it.

I wish I could go back to being a musician or cook and make the money I do at this job. Sadly, at this point, that's the biggest thing still keeping me here.

Yes, this post is being put on the highly searchable world wide web. And yes, that is my name. Let's see my boss find it and do something about it.

[SuperDuck]

Thanks for all the input everybody. I've only been in the big-boy career world for about three years, and it seems that every day I learn more about how people and businesses really operate. Sometimes it's a lot of fun, sometimes not so much.

We'll see what happens after this round of evals!

[Selta]

Originally Posted by SuperDuck

Thanks for all the input everybody. I've only been in the big-boy career world for about three years, and it seems that every day I learn more about how people and businesses really operate. Sometimes it's a lot of fun, sometimes not so much.

We'll see what happens after this round of evals!

Yeah, I can't wait to get my eval this year. They're supposed to be done soon, so we'll find out. That's where I usually voice "concerns", very subtly.

[Toasted]

*ehug for you*

[WalterBush]

Anytime you're calling management's decisions into question, whether you're right or wrong, do it in a way that helps them.

Outright criticism is dangerous; pointing out to them how giving you what you want is advantageous to them is good politics, in any situation.

You're there to help them, in their eyes. Show them how their needs line up with yours. As said before, though, I have no idea how you in particular do that where you are.

[SuperDuck]

Originally Posted by Toasted

*ehug for you*

That's what I was really looking for.

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by mike_v_s

When you are looking at walking into management's office and (politely) telling them that they are promoting the wrong people/overlooking the right people, you must be prepared for some ****. No matter how correct you are, you will be calling their judgment into question and few people really like that. If they are the kind of people that promote favorites regardless of value to the company, chances are pretty good they either don't care or aren't intelligent enough to realize it.

Originally Posted by thumpbass1

Well I complained and it cost me I do believe, because I rocked the boat. I became a troublemaker in their eyes and when an opportunity came for them to get rid of me, it was done. Not because of any incompetence on my part, but a technicality they were able to exploit. He's still there, but I am not. So I would advise you to be careful about making complaints. It takes tact and skill, and diplomacy to navigate around the sharks that swim in the corporate pool, when you happen to be a smaller fish in the corporate food chain.

Yup, this is generally the way it works all right. While I understand that you like your work, Duck, and that you feel fortunate to have the job, ultimately the best way to register your dissatisfaction - in a way that actually protects you - is to vote with your feet: by taking another job. Anything you try to do to improve the situation - while remaining an employee at that company - potentially puts you at risk of retribution, to a greater or lesser degree. Only you can accurately assess the degree of risk - and whether it would be worth it.

Originally Posted by mike_v_s

In situations like that, you HAVE to tell the management. Even if it makes you look like your whining, the bottom line is that you need to look out for the company's best interests. It's what you get paid to do.

While I understand where Mike is coming from, and while this is a noble and commendable motive (and maybe a pragmatic one, to the extent that it affects your personal fortunes), I would say that going to management - even to protect the company's interests - can still carry risks. Unless you're actually on the management team, and thus have a voice in setting policy, you can easily find yourself in a no-win situation - with responsibility but without authority - and at the mercy of whatever their brain-dead blunders might do to harm the company, but at risk of retribution if you somehow threaten their fragile egos by actually telling them about it. The bottom line: If they're the ones who are running the company, but they're too stupid to do it right, then you have to look out for yourself. Because they've put you in that position...

Sorry to be so cynical, but I've been through this before. Unless you happen to have an especially enlightened, humane management (doesn't sound like it), you might have to either put up with the politics...or go someplace that's better. And good luck with that...

MM

[Tsal]

Originally Posted by SuperDuck

We'll see what happens after this round of evals!

What kind of organization is it? Many companies, that follow the trendy "modern" leadership guides and gurus at least, have a system of individual evaluation/development days, which are basically ment as situation where you can speak your mind about where you feel you are/would like to be personally going, career-wise.

If you're a good guy but do silently all the other persons' jobs, you don't catch anyone's eye. The problem is, how to do it so that you don't apper to be licking the senior's behind or annoy the other workers. A good move would perhaps be showing interest in the "best of company", and discussing some development ideas and other company-related stuff with them.. sticking to the business and not to the people, so to say.

Then again, there might be some reason why the boss feels he'd rather give the promotion to other guys. Are they more educated or otherwise in somehow senior position to you? It's always the "new" guys who get to do all the crappy work, and sometimes seniority seems to go well over skills..

[MAJOR METAL]

One \MM/ hug for Michael. Does your baby puss complain ? I hear they do that when they want to get fed.