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How They Use ‘ Not Yet’ As An Excuse To Not Give You A Promotion

February 20, 2026 by Elaine B

๐—›๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒโ€™๐˜€ ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—ž๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„ ‘ ๐—ก๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—ฌ๐—ฒ๐˜’ ๐—œ๐˜€ ๐—”๐—ป ๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—”๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป’๐˜ ๐—š๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—” ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป

๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜€
You only hear it in oneโ€‘toโ€‘ones when you finally ask about progression.
You suddenly hear it right after youโ€™ve rescued a project or covered for someone.
The line is always, โ€˜We just need to see this a bit longer.โ€™

๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜’๐˜€ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—š๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ข๐—ป
Underneath, itโ€™s often about a favourite they want to promote instead, or a shaky leader who canโ€™t afford to lose you.
There is an upside to being good at your job, you tend to get more perks, but the downside – they can keep you down.

๐——๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ:
You become the safety net that never gets to leave the floor.
What then becomes frustrating is not knowing quite how to handle it.

๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜† ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฝ:
Next time you hear โ€˜not yetโ€™, quietly ask yourself, โ€˜Whose interests does this delay serve?โ€™ Youโ€™ll learn more from that question than from another year of waiting.

Filed Under: Power Plays Tagged With: How they use not yet to not promote you, How to tell if you're being sabotaged at work?, Office Politics, Power plays

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