I work in a small offfice of five people. Our particular property employs over 700 people. It is part of a big corporation that employees at least 5,000 people. A couple of weeks ago one of my co-workers was given a promotion. But the thing about it is that the others in our office was not given an opportunity to apply for this new position nor told about it. Our company policy states that all jobs must be posted internally for five days. It was posted on our application web site. We also have a paper posting that points out jobs that other employees might be interested in applying for (this way they don't have to just keep going to the application site). This new position wasn't ever put on this posting. The VP of our department kept this new job totally secret from me and another co-worker. Her intentions was to give this to her administrative assistant the whole time. She also hasn't announced (to us in the office) the assistant's promotion to the new position. Both me and my co-worker are in an age protected class. The admin assistant is also in a protected class as she is an Africian American.
But me and my co-worker feel like this was done very sneaky. After the VP and her assistant went on a personal trip together a couple of weekends ago, the VP came in on the following Monday, made up a job description (that was taylored especially to the admin) and secretly posted it on our application website. She then told one of our manager's basically that she had to take the admin as her assistant (even though the the manager flat out told her that she wouldn't hire the assistant), quickly had the job closed on the fifth day and the had the paperwork processed. The co-worker and I feel like we were never given a chance to apply for this position let alone told about it. We feel like it is favortism at it's worst (being as it came on the heels of the VP and the admin going on a personal (not business) trip together. Might I also mention that the VP is an African American female as well. I for one am qualified for this position (according to the job description) and the admin is not. This position will offer a step into the manager's position.
The bottom line, has my and my co-worker's rights been violated and if so what course of action should we take? We feel like we should confront the VP first or possibly go to her boss or report it to our corporate HR.
But me and my co-worker feel like this was done very sneaky. After the VP and her assistant went on a personal trip together a couple of weekends ago, the VP came in on the following Monday, made up a job description (that was taylored especially to the admin) and secretly posted it on our application website. She then told one of our manager's basically that she had to take the admin as her assistant (even though the the manager flat out told her that she wouldn't hire the assistant), quickly had the job closed on the fifth day and the had the paperwork processed. The co-worker and I feel like we were never given a chance to apply for this position let alone told about it. We feel like it is favortism at it's worst (being as it came on the heels of the VP and the admin going on a personal (not business) trip together. Might I also mention that the VP is an African American female as well. I for one am qualified for this position (according to the job description) and the admin is not. This position will offer a step into the manager's position.
The bottom line, has my and my co-worker's rights been violated and if so what course of action should we take? We feel like we should confront the VP first or possibly go to her boss or report it to our corporate HR.