Great job, great manager, but…

Great job, great manager, but…

An year ago I left a company where I’ve worked for more than 10 years. At that point I was working at a Director level. This company has given me a lot in terms of my own development as I have had exposure to every process and part of he company and it has been a great experience overal. Just the growing responsibility became unbearable at one point to the point it started affecting my health, so I needed less responsibility. As this was not possible within the same company I had no choice but to find another job and leave. I started a new job in one of the big four at a senior level and without any line management responsibilities, which in my case was nearly perfect job. At the time I was starting I was so mentally exhausted that I just wanted to do my work, use my brain, but not to manage people. This job fit me well and it sill does. My team is amazing, my manager is amazing, most of the people I work with are extremely good professionals in their areas of expertise, which makes work much easier. My manager is younger than me but very skilful and professional and overall I have a very good relationship with them ( I am hiding the gender on purpose, so I will use the they/them pronoun). But… there always is a “but”. Despite that my manager recognises me as being one of the most knowledgable people on the team, and they use me often to train them and help them with work which is supposed to be management work or in situations they are unsure there have been a few events that left me with a sour taste of our interaction. 1. They promoted another person who is also a good expert, but engaging only in his own projects and does not help the team in any way, while me and a few others in the team are usually doing the shared work, the dirty work and help with the management work that our manager does not have time for and needs help with. I was rated as “outstanding” on all my 3 performance reviews so far and I’ve been told that my manager is looking for options to promote me. 2. We can choose the projects we want to work on, but somehow if I say I want to work on a given project I am told I will be assigned to it and then it gets assigned to another colleague while I am being assigned the projects that my colleagues usually were about to fail, the client is complaining, and I have to bring them back on track and do all the work in the project or much sorter time as I am compensating for others failures. 3. There are global roles and leadership roles made available where me and people from my team fit well, but my manager rejects them if my manager cannot step into them (not giving the opportunity to the others in the team who also have the expertise).

Lately I am thinking a lot if I have made a mistake accepting a role at a lower level than my previous job. At that moment back then I needed less responsibility but now I need development as I feel like my skills are utilised and used, but I am not learning anything new. Others are learning from me, but I am not developing new skills and new expertise. I also feel like my manager is using me to learn from me, but they are not keen on developing me because this may mean they lose the option to use me as much for things they feel unsure or need help. I like my manager, my job and the company, but I feel like I am not developing.