Lack of transparency on advancement opportunities - advice needed
This week both my employee and I found out about two other managers in our org getting promoted to second level managers. This employee reports to a first line manager under me. I'm a second line manager who reports to a director with two other third level managers. My employee was understandably upset about getting passed over for a promotion, especially when the work he does supports the two that got promoted (we were actively redefining the process of that workflow because those two managers constantly dump their problems on him last minute). These promotions were done out of cycle, and I was not notified of the opportunity to provide input or recommendations on my team members. This employee has been top rated and we've discussed his desire for advancement should an opportunity arise during our last performance reviews with the leadership team. The director just announced his retirement and the two people who got promoted were under the other sr managers, one of which is taking over as acting director.
When I asked if I could understand why the decision was made, I was told the people who got promoted are now my peers and it would be inappropriate to discuss. I understand that from a performance perspective, but normally when promotions are given scope is also adjusted. I feel blindsided and now have nothing to tell my employee. He's a top employee and I would like to keep him, although at this point I feel like this situation has greatly destroyed trust. My director has already mentally checked out. I scheduled a meeting with HR to try to push for clarity on the scope change, but I have low confidence it'll get me anywhere, but labeled a source of conflict.
I'm a lower ranking manager with the same level of people management responsibilities as my sr managers, but have been excluded from major organizational decisions like this. The other two sr mgrs regularly push low value work from their teams onto my team. One sr mgr has already threatened my job verbally in a one on one (reported that to HR) and then turned around and asked that we "stick together". The other sr mgr has reported collaborations with our team to corporate as solely his team's effort (this is the one taking over as active director). When I had asked that my teams contributions to the projects be recognized, I got written up for starting conflict.
Is there any realistic chance I can do anything more to support my employee? Is this savable or is it time to move on?