Dear Bob ...I'd like to respond to your reader who thinks you are full of beans. Feel free to use the story, if you like, but please keep me anonymous.My husband worked for a large technical company. He has an associate's degree, but is smart and very hard-working. He was appointed acting engineer in charge of a piece of process equipment when the "real" engineer who was hired for the job turned out to be woeful Dear Bob …I’d like to respond to your reader who thinks you are full of beans. Feel free to use the story, if you like, but please keep me anonymous.My husband worked for a large technical company. He has an associate’s degree, but is smart and very hard-working. He was appointed acting engineer in charge of a piece of process equipment when the “real” engineer who was hired for the job turned out to be woefully incompetent. My husband’s work ethic put him in the lab not just during a normal 40-hour shift, but many nights and weekends, to ensure that product would be delivered on time. His manager promised my husband a promotion to engineer, if he jumped through enough hoops. Hoops were jumped through. My husband’s manager gave him more responsibility then some of his “real” engineers. My husband, although on paper a lowly engineering technician, was given a project to manage and clients to interface with. He had more responsibility (and put in more hours) than engineers making 50-70% more than he did. At one point, the company instituted a promotion and wage freeze. Interestingly enough, my husband’s manager was able to hand out promotions to his Ph.D. engineers right before the freeze went into effect. When the freeze expired, my husband’s manager allowed him to think that a promotion to engineer was in the works, even though the company had recently instituted a bachelor’s degree requirement for engineering positions. Once he found out about the requirement through the grapevine, my husband gave two-months’ notice. After much behind-the-scenes wrangling the company came back with an offer: promotion to engineer and a 10% wage increase. Of course, the promotion to engineer also came with a 12.5% increase in the hours he was expected to work. One can only participate in one’s own exploitation for so long.– Poorer, but much happier Dear Happier …That kind of thing happens so often it’s scary.You didn’t ask for advice, but in the interest of helping others achieve better results I do have a suggestion for next time. The major point I’d make for employees in your husband’s situation is to ask the question, “When?”If the person making the commitment is sincere, a productive discussion will follow. If it’s exploitation, the answer will be a combination of annoyance and evasion. And if it’s somewhere in between and you think an unwillingness to commit to a date or triggering event is plausible, establish a date anyway. Ask to schedule a date on which you can review progress in obtaining the promotion. In effect, you’re delegating your career to your boss. Like any act of delegation there should be a schedule of events attached.If you get one, great. If the boss refuses, your boss refuses. Either way, you’ll know. – Bob ——– Technology Industry