*edit to add - Thank you for all your responses they are definitely helpful.!!One thing to add when I said I asked to go to higher level meetings; I was trying to show initiative and learn more about the business dealings to help elevate my position.

19 Comments

1. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 11:45AM UTC

   Sounds like it’s time to find a new job with a resume listing all your experience and ensuring you’re hired into a “labeled” position worthy of your experience

2. Paulla Fetzek, MSEdNovember 2,2022 at 1:06PM UTC

   Hello!

   First, congratulations for all you've done. You've shown tenacity and vastness of talent most certain.

   Second, have you ever inquired as to why an HR Director was hired? Is the company grooming you to head up a different direction? Do you have an HR background? Did they hire someone who does have HR credentials?

   You could write the goals you wish to achieve - and make note of all that you've accomplished for the company. If you're still not recognized after this, perhaps looking for a new job is in order.

3. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 1:09PM UTC

   Congratulations on growing the team.

   I’ve been in this situation and was passed over for a Director role that I was told I was being groomed for. It sounds as though this is a team that is stepping from startup to the next level of maturity. Sometimes there is a perception that the leaders that are needed during early days are often different than the leaders that are needed at the next level of maturity. Maybe they need someone who has expertise in growing companies at this next level of maturity and has done so several times.

   You have 3 options:

   • You can be sour grapes and make it difficult for this new person.
   • You can be valuable to this new person and come to know their expertise and why they were hired through observing their actions.
   • You can leave.

   I’d recommend the section option. Send them an invite. Get introduced. Welcome them to the team, share a few helpful resources and links to repositories. This is what I did, then I found a job as Director elsewhere. Good luck!

4. Shelly EdwardsNovember 2,2022 at 1:47PM UTC

   I would request a meeting with the CEO to review your situation and all that you have done for the company. Ask that person what their view of your role would be and let them know how you feel, in a professional and respectful manner. Ask what you can do to perhaps be a more valued member of the team now that the company has grown so much. If you want to do more HR level things, work with the Director to do that. If you want to do higher level accounting work, ask the controller to be a stronger partner. Use your voice and your experience within the organization to try to make it better. If that doesn't work, then I'd start looking for another position. Growth in a company is very difficult and sometimes you just don't align with that growth and that is ok to say in interviews and in your current position. Good luck!!

5. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 7:31PM UTC

   To what end? The CEO made the decision and by going to the CEO to complain it sounds as though she disagrees with their decision. The CEO is adding layers of experienced managment to perform these functions. She has already been assigned a role. To argue now shows that she doesn’t accept the decision made by a CEO.

6. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 2:41PM UTC

   You were reassigned to a much lower level position as the company no longer needs you to keep the afloat. They have hired the proper professionals to get them to the next level. These were never roles you were tapped for.

   In the world of startups the initial years are just doing what you can to stay in the game. ..

   You filled that role but the company is maturing and needs to operate at a higher level if they are to keep maturing.

   Spend some time determining what it is you want to do. You have been asked to layout a career plan. They don't need you to fill in as a stop gap. They need you to define your role. Being included in high level meetings is really is really not appropriate without a reason. So give them a reason. Figure out what you bring to the table and how you want to use that expertise. This is your chance to define your role.

7. Barb HansenNovember 2,2022 at 3:38PM UTC

   Sometimes startups need to hire experienced-on-paper key personnel to meet the demands of their Board or investors, so although management might have wanted to promote a hard worker but not-experienced-on-paper employee, they just can't.

   Although it feels personal, the company's actions may not be. That being said, they should have explained why they couldn't promote you (or give you the title for the job you were doing), and the fact that they didn't talk to you about it speaks volumes to me.

   Good management can find ways to reward that hard-working "not-experienced-on-paper" employee.

   A well-managed startup or a startup led by good people would have done one of the following things for you to repay you for your hard work in the early days;

   1. Explaining why they couldn't hire you for a Senior Management role

   2. Give you more stock in the company.

   3. Crafting with you a career path in the company that supports where you want to go and honors your previous work.

   This is a common practice in young startups where a hard-working early employee who did "everything for everyone" but doesn't have the background to hold a Senior Management role gets a lot of stock.

   What can you do now?

   Write up your goals for next year, officially ask for a promotion and a raise and document your plan for that promotion. There is no harm in officially asking for what you want. The company will support you, or they don't. And if they don't, you can make decisions from there.

   But it appears that you have already asked for a promotion. You may have your answer already.

8. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 9:59PM UTC

   Like others have pointed out, at a startup everyone wears many hats. Even those they know nothing about. After 3.5 years you can hardly call it a startup.

   Your role changed because the company grew up.

   Getting invited to high level meetings is not how you identify your next role and would be highly inappropriate.

   It's up to you to identify your next job. Knowing the business as you do, I'm sure you have some idea of what you're interested in. If not spend some time talking to your peers. Maybe they can make some suggestions.

9. GirlBossanova934974November 6,2022 at 1:35PM UTC

   There's a very old management saying. Do not believe in what people say. Believe what they do. This company used your excellent skillsets for 3.5 years and they were happy NOT to have to hire any new people that would have cost them a pretty penny. And when they grew up and started to make more money? They did what? They went to the outside and hired outsiders for a lot more money than you are making now. I am a business owner myself. If I had someone on my payroll like you, you can bet your last dime you wouldn't be wondering where your next role or assignment would be. Personally, I would have found a way to get you that Controller's job or HR Director's job. But some business owners are always on the prowl for the latest, greatest, newest, and shiniest. This is usually the first place they shoot themselves in the rear ends! Some people always figure out a way to snatch defeat from the mouth of success. So be it. I would have 2 resumes all ready to go and out with recruiters yesterday.

   One would be an HR related resume and the other a senior Accounting Director position. I was in this position around 20 years ago. My coworkers were all sent to fancy IT classes which cost the company $50K in costs per employee. I was left to do my job. I was making the company about a million per month. At the end, my training was pushed back....I was gone in 3 weeks. Believe people for what they do, not what they say.

10. AnonymousNovember 6,2022 at 1:39PM UTC

    What qualifications and expertise do the HR director and controller have that you are lacking? Perhaps your goal could be to put yourself on track to become a controller and take some classes, get a certification, etc.

11. G C HesseNovember 6,2022 at 2:19PM UTC

    Your goals....what company still does this type of thing!

    My POV is that I would put a big question mark on a blank sheet of paper. You've proved yourself....time to move on!!!

    Loyalty to a company is a thing of the past....IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!!!!

12. Ashley SmithNovember 6,2022 at 7:26PM UTC

    Amen!! With all that you’ve done and you were overlooked now underpaid, what goal is attainable at this job? Shame on them!

13. StellaNovember 6,2022 at 8:32PM UTC

    Shame on them is right. I left a company due to the same issue. Find a better place to put in your blood, sweat and tears, a place you are valued.

14. Chris DownesNovember 6,2022 at 2:27PM UTC

    I was effectively in similar position for start up enterprise for first six years.

    We worked for less money initially and still when business was booming, I busted a gut, because I believed in the organisation.

    I left when it was clear despite my ever increasing workload and responsibilities, my wages were pretty stagnant, but I did still achieve.

    He employed his friend who was working there in a different capacity. Her workload was less than mine but through friends of mine there still there, my replacements starting salary was over double mine.

    Like me, you deserve much more, and perhaps like myself your workrate and conscientious nature was taken for granted.

    Sadly the main boss in your organisation sounds a little misguided and overwhelmed by qualifications but has overlooked your own obvious experience by way of already successfully doing the role right under his / her nose !!

    You deserve better but it won't be where you are. It should be in a fair and correct society but I feel you best aiming higher elsewhere and uf you need get the qualifications that recruiters seem to be bamboozled by over experience then perhaps see whether that is something you could do.

    If you resenting where you are now, which I personally could easily see why, get an opportunity where your brilliant work is valued and not thus tin pot outfit with a few fakes in charge !!!

15. AnonymousNovember 6,2022 at 3:14PM UTC

    Someone who wears many hats can't really be an expert in any of those areas. Since you've gotten exposure to lots of different job functions, which ones do you want to specialize in? If your answer is "none" and you like being a person with many hats, maybe your answer is to go look for a smaller firm where you can be the jill-of-many-trades again.

16. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 5:41PM UTC

    Excellent insight!

17. AnonymousNovember 6,2022 at 4:39PM UTC

    On your performance review, write out everything you have accomplished and shared here.
    Be very objective about it and cite numbers where possible.

    Then write whatever your goal or request is. You could start by saying, “In light of what I have accomplished at this company so far, my next set of goals are…”

    You feel demoted, but what *are* your goals? What is your ask? Once you have your accomplishments documented and acknowledged by your manager, you make your ask and if you don’t get it, you can start shopping around for a role in line with what you’re capable of and what you’re worth.

18. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 12:21AM UTC

    I've overseen a couple of organisations that have grown from single figures to 100 as an organisational psychologist. Unfortunately your story is not unusual. People hired in the early days in startups are supposed to be able to do a bit of this, that and the other, and this works brilliantly. Then, when the organisation achieves traction, suddenly specialists are needed and some of the flexible early hires are overlooked and they are often not treated well. It happens over and over again.

    The answer is really down to what you want to do. If you aren't yet ready to become a specialist, the best thing you can do is leave and go and find a similar role elsewhere, where you can sell your broad skills for a lot more money. Some people just far prefer this to having a specialism, and there's nothing wrong with that at all.

    Alternatively, you can stay where you are, but specialise and grow in a single department. There is an awful lot more to HR than hiring, onboarding and payroll, so that's a possibility, but only if you rate this HR Director once you're really seen them in action. Alternatively, you can develop a deeper specialism in a particular area of accounts and grow in that way.

    Those are probably your two options. If you can forgive the organisation for not handling the way they have grown Operations, then you should stay and grab the opportunity. Ask for everything you need in order to do this when you compose your goals. However, you may not be able to do that, and most people wouldn't blame you, so you can take everything you've learned and apply it elsewhere. Either way, you take back charge.

19. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 1:56AM UTC

    I realize, it’s difficult for you to leave the company you helped build up. Your skill sets in HR, writing Standard Operating Procedures and Policies, Accounting, etc will be the driving force in getting a better job. You need to cut the strings with your current company, update your resume and aggressively apply for other jobs at a competitive salary. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain! Sometimes the biggest obstacle is becoming to comfortable in your current job and thereby never move forward.