By luceeloo - 23/11/2016 22:10

Today, I spent my working day teaching my new Supervisor the basics of Excel. Until two weeks ago, he was the Office Junior. He and I applied for the same job, but he got it based on the strengths of his "far superior" Excel skills. I'm now teaching him how to do the job that I didn't get. FML
I agree, your life sucks 11 236
You deserved it 840

Same thing different taste

Top comments

Unless something akin to nepotism is at work here, I don't see why you can't simply refuse to teach him, and point out to HR that he obviously lied to get the position.

Teach him the incorrect way to do it. He can't blame it on you for he is the "expert". Win-win for you. Unless your boss is the real asshole, then nothing may work on your favor.

Comments

cheshireau 26

I'm calling out your boss for sexism. He wouldn't need your help if his 'superior skills' got him the job. Sorry OP.

And you know that how? Just from the little gender icon? Why does everything have to be sexism these days?

That's the only information presented. The female with enough experience/skill/competence to train others got passed over while an untrained/unskilled male was promoted instead. If we had more information, it could be another bias. Maybe the boss and junior guy are the same race, but OP is not. Or junior is secretly the boss's nephew. Or the boss and junior guy are the same religion, but OP is not. Or junior is hotter/younger than OP. Or OP is hotter/younger and the boss considers that "too distracting". They're all equally bad. Any way that you slice it, the person who approved junior's promotion is an asshole.

Sexism exists, deal with it. It comes in many forms and effects all genders. In this case, it is a possibility, so it's not a bad thing to call out that this could be the case for this situation. This guy got a job he had no knowledge of and wasn't qualified for. So why exactly did he get the job? What differences were there between OP and this other guy that made him the better candidate? Because it certainly wasn't for his "superior skills" like the boss said. His new employees wouldn't have to train him if he did indeed possess these "superior skills."

Let's blame sexism or racism cause they are definitely the cause of every single problem in the world. Yeah, sexism is a possibility. But so is the boss simply liking the worker they promoted more. Or OP's new superior just simply lied about their Excel skills and the boss didn't notice it. Every time someone misidentifies sexism as the cause of a problem it makes it harder to believe it is the cause the next time someone claims it. Stop crying wolf unless you can actually see the wolf.

You're calling the boss out for sexism, but do you really know if that's the case? Do you even know if the boss is a man? Maybe her boss just doesn't like her. There are far too many reasons for one person to dislike another, to make that kind of assumption without knowing the people in the situation personally.

It doesn't matter if the boss is a man, women can be sexist and biased too, even towards their own sex. There are many possibilities, and sexism could be 1 of these possibilities, so it should be considered.

Considered, yes. But #1 flat out said it was sexism. There are so many other things it could be that there's no way to make that call. In fact it is flat out sexist in and of itself to claim that because OP is a woman, the reason must be sexism.

You're right. It is a possiblility, and it should be considered. But these people just flat out crying "sexism" are acting like it's the only possibility, without knowing all the details. In my own humble opinion, that's just being narrow minded. Maybe the boss is friends with the new guy. Maybe the boss just doesn't like her because of things that have happened... Who knows. Like I said before, there are too many possibilities to just assume

It seems that all of you missed the fact that he apparently got the job over OP because he claimed to have superior Excel skills. HR or whoever handled the promotion probably assumed he wasn't lying to them and based their decision on that.

KrazyKatz3 26

It's possible that in reading the CVs they just read a higher level of excel (lies) on the junior's report and highered him for that purpose

Unless something akin to nepotism is at work here, I don't see why you can't simply refuse to teach him, and point out to HR that he obviously lied to get the position.

I feel like there's a 90% chance that whoever approved the promotion was fully aware this dude didn't have the right skills to begin with. It's not like 2 strangers applied for a job. The higher ups would already know (based on their daily job duties) that OP uses Excel everyday and the office junior had no experience with it. So the question is not IF the promotion was biased, only WHAT KIND of bias was at play. I agree it's still bullshit and OP should bring it up with HR.

cootiequeen4444 11

did you read the FML? He obviously is not. Otherwise he wouldn't need to be taught anything regarding Excel, much less the basics... And let's face it, if you were good at excel and applied to a promotion and got denied because of the promotion winner's "superior" excel skills only to have to teach them the skills that supposedly won them the job and lost you it, you'd be ******* pissed as well. There is really no reason to defend the guy... especially if he (obviously) lied to get the promotion and he got away with it to. Unless of course it was one of those mock promotion openings that they allow anyone.to try out for but actually have a certain person in mind. Happens in the government all the ******* time. The root is typically nepotism so I wouldn't be surprised if that was at play in OP'S unfortunate case. :/

The OP can't because it's obvious the guy brought real skills and the Excel thing was just a side skill. Additionally, he may actually have superior excel skills, but could need training on their formatting. The OP here sounds angry that they lost the promotion, and are lashing out.

Obvious? This post has little context, it very well be that they're lashing out but assuming (either way) based upon a 3 paragraph post on a website that one side is wrong or right is poor judgement skills. Either way, if OP felt the need to write on a website over this, again assuming it's legit, the likely hood of it simply being formatting or some company specific way of utilizing excel is not very high. It's true, they could be the sort of person to do that but in that case this would also be a fa/ke af FML. :'D

I bet Trump also has someone teaching him the necessary skills to be president.

Please try and keep politics off this. It turns the comments section into a completely unrelated shit storm. I know you have freedom of speech, but political stuff is annoying to some people.

LadyLuck93 20

you could just not read the thread with the political comments.

Big_D_Real 12

To be considered a joke, it's needs to be funny.

Teach him the incorrect way to do it. He can't blame it on you for he is the "expert". Win-win for you. Unless your boss is the real asshole, then nothing may work on your favor.

"Evil" implies either the other guy doesn't deserves it despite lying or that the overall boss doesn't deserve it despite either not checking how they compare or checking but picking the guy anyways even though OP was more qualified. Either way, they deserve it so it's more "*karma-Ing intensifies*."

"Far superior Excel skills" is code for "has a penis." Sabotage your next student. Tell them a bar chart is a list of cocktails.

If you're not willing to let your boss know that he lied his way to the promotion then YDI

why? if you don't teach him he gets demoted and you get the job?

Reality_bites 14

OP: why dont you just pretend you dont know the answer/s when they ask more related excel questions? Just tell them what you did teach them, is what you know. Why should they get extra pay for a job you could presumably easily do and get free training from you as well, not to mention the fact that it may put you back further in YOUR job tasks?

As someone who comes from an industry where excel is a big part of the job I know many companies see students write they are experts in excel. They know the students exaggerate and are just average. To us it only counts when we say in which way we used excel and give very specific examples or had excel based classes at uni like "financial modeling in excel" etc.. You should question the person saying the guy got the job due to superior excel skills though.

This guy happened to be hired ,but this situation won't exist long for he will expose by his real ability