How to recognise if you are being 'breadcrumbed' at work (employee, profit)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I can't say I've ever been the victim of "breadcrumbing" in my past jobs as well as my current one.
I never asked for or was promised a promotion at any point, eventually I was automatically given a promotion. I was never mislead either.
Can't say the same for a few of my co-workers though. They've been waiting for a promotion now for almost two years. It's tough because our department only has a few slots open each year for promotions and as always it's politically driven. You would think they'd find another job since it would be easier to get a new job with a new title. But the perks and stability of current job keep them anchored.
If you have ever felt like you’ve been strung along at work with the promise of promotions, raises or career development, you’ll know it is a frustrating and exhausting experience.
‘Breadcrumbing,’ the act of leaving a small crumb trail to lead you along, first came to light as a phenomenon in the dating world, but it’s becoming increasingly common in the workplace too.
Breadcrumbing can take on many forms in a professional setting. For example, it is the manager who often praises you for your hard work and that they want to reward you for it with a promotion or a pay rise, but never follows through. Because of this, you may find yourself sticking around in a dead-end job – even though you don’t want to.
It can also happen before you even start a job. During the recruitment process, your prospective employer may have encouraged you to sign on the dotted line with the promises of travel opportunities, your own office or a certain amount of money if you hit your targets.
Sounds like a lot of dishonesty and manipulation. Taking advantage of people. Praising people for their hard work that's worth of a promotion, they're told, is a way to keep them motivated to work hard, and keep productivity high. But there's never any reward at the end of the tunnel. Instead, the CEO's are laughing their way to the bank, with the profits from the high productivity.
It’s happened with me, at a position I held about 20 years ago. I was a good performer at a certain role (having held the position for 3 years). They would not move me from that role, as it was “key.” The Director kept promising me promotion after promotion, but could not approve it, due to “budget reasons.” (All BS.) I figured out the game and left for another company. After I put in my resignation, I was promised another “promotion.” I never looked back.
Everybody is breadscrumbed by someone and in some way, not only at work, but also in his/her own family and friends. Can you avoid, prevent, escape breadscrumbing totally? No.
Most employees are breadscrumbed by their manager(s). Most supervisors and managers are breascrumbed by their higher-ups. And some higher-ups are breadscrumbed by their higher-higher-ups. Even employees and the ones in the management (in the same ranks) are breadscrumbed by their co-workers and colleagues.
I believe most people recognize they are breadscrumbed at some points. But some people are smarter and capable to escape breadscrumbing faster than some other. However, when they go to a new place, they may get a raise or promotion, together with more responsibilities and workloads, but eventually they feel stressed, burnt out, and feel they being breadscrumbed again. And there are people who jump to a new company and find out the same things happen as in their old workplace, or worst, and they regret.
That's the way it is in the business world: breadscrumbing, dog eats dog from the top down and even on the same levels.
The only way to avoid or prevent breadscrumbing from some body else is to create your own business/company, to work for yourself. Nonetheless, you still have to rely on many other people (your clients, other companies you deal with). You will have to face lots of problems with people anyway. Everything has pros and cons.
To me, as long as I like my job, I have reasonably good pay and benefits, I have more good co-workers and managers than mean ones, I will stay with the company. I know how to deal with the mean ones though. I learn to look at and appreciate the positive things. My job is just an addition and a backup for my income.
The importance is you need to know the art of give and take.
Last edited by AnOrdinaryCitizen; 07-15-2020 at 01:18 PM..
I can't say I've ever been the victim of "breadcrumbing" in my past jobs as well as my current one.
I never asked for or was promised a promotion at any point, eventually I was automatically given a promotion. I was never mislead either.
Can't say the same for a few of my co-workers though. They've been waiting for a promotion now for almost two years. It's tough because our department only has a few slots open each year for promotions and as always it's politically driven. You would think they'd find another job since it would be easier to get a new job with a new title. But the perks and stability of current job keep them anchored.
It's another ploy to string employees along. It costs them nothing to sit an employee down and pump them up with promises and big things are going to happen. Meanwhile they make big announcements about growth and how great things are going. It is a wonderful motivator for employee morale, and they can string them along for years until the employee figures out it isn't going to happen.
You can tell if you are being strung along, if the promotion being hinted at or promised doesn't have a date.
If you are told, you meet these goals by year end, you will be promoted to X with Y benefits, this is an actual plan. Yes, plans can get changed, but that is a layout of an actual plan. But if each time you get a review, it is glowing but it still isn't time to promote you because of the same old reasons, then you are being strung along. It costs them nothing to lie to you.
This is why people need to plan their career carefully. What do you want your resume to look like in 5 years, 10 years, etc. and that's how you plan things. So if you spend 3 years someplace expecting to be promoted and you weren't, then you need to find another job. I know people are going to have excuses why they don't do this, but we are talking about people who plan a career and it is important to them.
I can't say I've ever been the victim of "breadcrumbing" in my past jobs as well as my current one.
I never asked for or was promised a promotion at any point, eventually I was automatically given a promotion. I was never mislead either.
Can't say the same for a few of my co-workers though. They've been waiting for a promotion now for almost two years. It's tough because our department only has a few slots open each year for promotions and as always it's politically driven. You would think they'd find another job since it would be easier to get a new job with a new title. But the perks and stability of current job keep them anchored.
If you have been the most productive member of your department/unit/team for a long time and you have not moved up, it is time to look for opportunities elsewhere.
I agree with this article and most assuredly have experienced it myself. However, myself and a few other co-workers aren't necessarily looking to move into management. If you like doing the work but a promotion moves you more into politics and pushing paper, then for some people they would rather get a raise rather than a promotion. Especially if you can clock out at 5 to spend more time with your family.
Ask yourself what your career goals are. Is it management? Upper management? Or you simply want a job where you can work on your own doing what you enjoy without the responsibility of managing a whole team?
Oh and that's one of the reasons I left my last law firm job (as a Paralegal).
When I was hired in Paralegals had great perks. They included quarterly bonuses, profit sharing, unlimited overtime without question, etc.
Fast forward 6 years later and all of those perks were GONE. However, attorneys still were able to make FAT bonuses regardless for doing less work. I mean, I understand. They are attorneys, naturally they will get paid more than a Paralegal, however every time the firm "needed" to make cuts money-wise it came out of the Paralegals pay/perks. I was told/pressured I had to help attorneys settle cases. While they got a nice $10,000 or more bonus each month I got...nothing. We weren't even allowed to work overtime anymore to make a few extra bucks.
However, as something sooo "cool" (not), the firm introduced a prize wheel for Paralegals if they met their goal, which did not include money. In fact, one of the prizes was a water bottle with the firm name on it. No kidding. When that failed to gain interest, the firm tried other dumb things that again, didn't include money.
All in all, I was being used by the firm to work hard, make sure these big cases settled, but they didn't want to reward us, only the attorneys (Who didn't go to court, just negotiated a settlement with insurance adjuster).
I told them I was being used. I quit. And now own my own Paralegal business.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
