It was time for our annual reviews and I was sitting in a 1 on 1 meeting with my boss. He went on an on about my work, explaining that I was doing innovative work that went above and beyond expectations, I was catching and preventing issues before they went out the door, worked well with my team members, and was well liked. He detailed how my efforts over the past year had saved the company a significant amount of time and money.
At this point he tried to give me the "atta-girl" and send me on my way, but he had left out an important detail. No mention of the promotion I was up for that I had clearly earned, based upon his endorsement of my work. This wasn't even a managerial-level promotion, so there was no competition for it and it was based solely on my performance.
So I asked him point blank what happened. "Oh yeah, that," he said. "Sorry, but we decided not to promote you at this time. You really need to smile more."
