We joined the company the same time, same role, but this other person gets client-facing work and growth opportunities while I’m stuck filing reports. My performance reviews are actually better than his.
Schedule a one-on-one with your boss specifically framed around your career growth — not about fairness or the other employee. Say: ‘I want to make sure I’m developing the skills needed for the next level here. What would it take for me to get involved in more client-facing work?’ This forces them to either give you a path forward or reveal there isn’t one. Separately, make yourself visible to other senior people by doing the admin work so well and so efficiently that you have bandwidth to volunteer for cross-team projects. I did this when stuck in a similar situation — within four months I had a direct relationship with a director in another department who eventually pulled me onto a major project completely bypassing my biased manager.
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