u/Salt_Tomorrow_4108

I'm on a team of 4, with three women older than me. Every Wednesday, someone has to stay late at work in case of client calls. These calls can be moved if we decide to reschedule them. And we don't get paid extra for them because we're salaried.

Anyway, one of my coworkers' cats died, so I covered for her. After that, she needed to go to her son's school event, so my manager made me cover again. Earlier this week, the same coworker twisted her ankle in the parking lot, and I was there at the time. Honestly, I felt bad for her because she's been going through a rough time lately.

My other coworker refused to cover and said her kids are young and she has daycare pickup and their bedtime routines to deal with. So my manager came to me again. I've been covering for this coworker for 4 weeks now. I already had plans with my friends to get food and hang out. When I told my manager I had plans, he asked me what they were. I told him I was meeting my friends for dinner.

That's when he told me to cancel. And he asked me why I couldn't cover when I don't have kids. I said I don't like canceling plans I made in advance, so he told me I wasn't a team player. I told him honestly that I wasn't going to cancel, so I didn't cover for her. And that night, no one covered.

Since yesterday and today, my manager has basically been ignoring me. I sent out 5 job applications this morning. I feel like I'm being discriminated against.

F** my manager for saying that to me.

A friend of mine works at a credit union. Normally, it takes several years for someone to move from roles like teller/relationship banker to running a branch. But about 14 months ago, they brought in a woman who was late all the time, would leave before closing, and sometimes showed up wearing leggings and hoodies like she was heading out for a Saturday errand (things anyone else would have been written up for), and in general she would dodge the less enjoyable parts of the job.

Within 8 months, she went from regular banker to "lead banker" and then assistant branch manager, ahead of people with better numbers, more experience, and honestly who seemed much more competent. She would get confused by basic things, rub people the wrong way in interactions, and create extra work for others because she didn't know what she was doing. And then somehow she got promoted again and became branch manager, also over people who had been there longer and understood the work.

The strange thing is that I've noticed a version of this almost in every large workplace I've worked in. There's always someone who isn't very polished, isn't reliable, isn't a master networker, and isn't secretly a genius. They're not necessarily the worst employee in the place, but they're also nowhere near the top. Just one of many very average people, with an inconsistent attitude, and abilities that are average at best.

And yet, they're the one who gets chosen every time.

How does this happen???

I understand the theory that they "don't pose a threat to management," and maybe that explains part of it. But why this specific person instead of any other average/below-average employee who doesn't leave any impression? And yes, sometimes it's family connections or being someone's golf buddy or something like that, but a lot of these people don't seem to have any connections at all. They're not even very visible until the promotion announcement comes out and everyone looks at each other like... Wait, him/her?