Does anyone know if bosses can essentially block an associate from transferring to another internal job? No known freezes or limits within the department on transfers.
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They can and do. ALOT!
They absolutely can and frequently do - especially if you're a high performer whose hard work makes your manager look good. Sadly, I know this from personal experience.
They most definitely can. It was done to me at the beginning of the year. I was the top pick for a lateral move, made it all the way through the hiring process and then the new manager was verbally told she couldn't hire me. Of course, nothing was put in writing. The person who was hired was promoted to the new position. Knowing 100% that they'd done it once makes me look back to other positions I've applied for in the past year. Since there's no way of knowing if they blocked any of those, I decided to cut my losses and leave. I'd rather have no job than work at that place.
@at Thank you for confirming this - why I left. People don't believe it but its true
National has blocked transfers for the same role to the same role , meaning if you work in UM for example you cannot transfer to any other UM department, if you want to transfer the role has to be entirely different- its essentially permanent but every year we have been told "its the current policy" funny how it never goes away.
So if you don't like your team, your work process, your shift, your manager, its next to impossible to get out unless you quit.
@ad How frustrating. My current Director has been rumored to do the same. Why would you want to force someone to keep working for you when they want to transfer to another department. The ego trip of some of these “people leaders” is ridiculous.
@af They may or may not be. The job market right now is brutal and highly competitive. So even though leaders have been known to do this, doesn't mean that they are and that is why you are not getting internal positions that you have interviewed for. There are a lot of people that have been Rif'd in the industry with a lot of experience and skills that are also applying and interviewing.
@ad Thank you. I continually score very well on all reviews and have had interviews go very well. Current top contributor on my team and have wondered about my manager blocking me from leaving the team.
Yes, they can and will BLOCK you. My old manager did it all the time. SMH
Yes they can talk to each other (current leader and hiring leader) and they do. They will even ask other associates that report to them if they think that they may know you or have worked with you before. They do what they want. I've witnessed all of it.
If you have not been in your role 12 months, they certainly can easily. They can also tell the new manager their opinion of your work and attitude.
If they say bad things about you that is essentially gonna make an internal transfer pretty hard. Also if you are job hunting internally and get in interview you have to tell your current manager or that can invalidate you being able to transfer internally. So basically at no point can you get offered another job without your boss knowing that this is a possibility.
A hiring manager can always reach out to your manager to ask about you. So I think there's a way, informally, to do that.