update: I found an ad for my own job

by Alison Green on December 1, 2014

We have loads of updates coming in from people who had their questions answered this year,  so brace yourself for a December full of updates! (This is especially useful since I’m having thumb surgery later this week and might not be able to do a ton of typing afterwards, so might rely on the updates as posts in the immediate aftermath.)

So … Remember the letter-writer who found an ad for her own job and was nervous that she was being secretly replaced? Here’s the update.

I was very nervous to ask my boss about this and I put it off for about a week, but after this was posted I just went for it. I’m glad I followed your advice because his response did set me at ease. He immediately made a joke about it and we laughed. It appears HR just made a mistake. I already contacted them about it. Thanks to everyone for your concern!

My boss still teases me about this from time to time, which makes me feel pretty secure in my job knowing how ridiculous he thinks it is that they would be secretly trying to replace me.

Additionally, I finally got a replacement for the vacant spot on my team. It took over 4 months to replace an entry-level employee. I agree with your response that we have a lame HR department. They barely communicated with me about the process. Both myself and a member of my team had family members who got very ill during this time, requiring us to take some time off and put additional stress on the already burnt out team. I don’t look forward to the day that I lose another team member and have to go through this all over again. I’m doing my best to be a great manager so that I can retain them as long as possible.

You may also like:
{ 13 comments }

{ 13 comments… read them below }

  2. BadPlanning*

    In addition to being annoying for the OP, it’s crappy that HR was advertising a job by mistake — potentially getting job seekers’ hopes up!

    2. The_artist_formerly_known_as_Anon-2*

      OR … if one is cynical, one could assume that the posting was NOT a mistake, but when OP confronted his/her management, they had second thoughts about it.

      The only industry stranger than IS/IT that I know of is the TV-radio industry. Here in our area, there was an incident in which an on-air sports anchor had his contract expire, yet management was continuing to “negotiate” with him. Every time they came close to a new contract “oh there was something in there legal didn’t like, blah blah.”

      Then one day he gets a call from some friends in another part of the country. The call was “Congratulations – you must be going to New York, or the networks…” “Huh? No, I’m staying, getting ready to sign a new contract.”

      The friends remarked = “Are you sure? The guy on TV here announced that tonight was his last night, he’s coming to (your city) and (your station) to take the sports anchor job in your slot.”

      OH. That night he gave his resignation – ON THE AIR.

  3. MaryMary*

    I’ve seen my last position at OldJob posted several times since I left two years ago (LinkedIn in particular keeps suggesting that I apply). There are multiple people in the office with that title, so it’s possible that the practice is growing enough to need to hire into the role. Or they’re continuing to struggle to find people who can excel in a highly demanding role with a punishing workload. Hard to tell.

    1. The_artist_formerly_known_as_Anon-2*

      Yeah I left one job to go to another one … and a year later, received a headhunter call from a guy who was trying to place me — in my old job!

      1. Jay B*

        We had an opening for an engineer position where I work, and I the one who was interviewing the candidates. One day I received a call from a recruiter about a new exciting opportunity, she said she knew the interviewing engineer personally, yada yada… I learned after about 30 minutes of conversation that it was the position I was interviewing the candidates for. Fun!

  4. lowercase holly*

    i received a rejection letter from HR for my current job about 6 months after starting because of the way their system is set up and how the job was originally posted. hilarious.

  5. Corine J*

    I am so glad that things worked out well for you and “it was” a mistake from HR. I was not so fortunate. I worked at a college as a receptionist in the evening. I was not aware that his pet peeve was anyone at the school talking on their cell phones. It was 9:00pm and students were in their last class for the evening and I was talking on my cell phone, who was in the hospital at the time. Long story short I was verbally reprimanded and saw my job posted on the website the next day. A student found it and informed me. I resigned immediately because our director was a Napoleon and his mo was when you are off hire someone so when you return to work fire you.

    Just my 2 cents!

Comments are closed.