I'm part of a UX team at Fiserv that support multiple products, with designers from around the country. Despite being one of the few with actual UX training, our recent managerial change led to the promotion of someone without UX expertise. Most of the designers are male, and it's worth noting that my previous lead was a female who was recently forced to quit. The lead they've replaced her with is male. Despite expressing my interest in stepping up and getting into management, they chose to promote a male colleague with zero UX experience instead. It's frustrating to witness this disparity and lack of recognition for qualified individuals within the team. This pattern raises concerns about s-xism within Fiserv, as it's difficult to understand why a female with extensive UX education and experience would not be promoted unless there were systemic biases at play.
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Apply for a different position. See what your worth is.
I agree with the last post, when my worker/manager left, they replaced with a manager...it was specifically mentioned they are here to MANAGE the team, not carry any workload. We're not even training the manager on details of how we do our job, so won't even be able to help troubleshoot problems.
If you are the only one with UX skills...you can't be the manager. Managers have to deal with a lot of BS and filtering. There would be no time for you to do the actual work of 5 people that your probably doing now. Not that you won't ever be a manager, its that you probably won't be one at Fiserv if you have skills. Its built into the culture now...do the work of 3-5, limited complaints = no need to promote since you've accepted the fate. Good Luck to you though I hope one day you get the opportunity to train others with your skills.
See the @fiservmisogyny account on Twitter for more examples.
It's hard to say for certain why you were passed up. I will say that Fiserv always has been a good ol' boys club. It's also always been a place that promotes from the outside.
With that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if it is s-xism. However Fiserv has a track record of being stupid with its promotions so it may not be that deep either.
Welcome to Fiserv, home of everything gone wrong...
You seem to have an extremely narrow view on this. You think your UX skill entitles you to be the manager. Based on what I see in these posts, the correct decision was made.
FWIW:
While yes there could be bias here not discounting what you're saying. Yet as others have said there can be many reasons. I had managers throughout my career both male and female that had very little understanding of my actual job. My best manager gave me this statement once and its stuck with me over a decade now "I hire people smarter than me to do the job I can't.". This meant that manager hires people for their skills to do their job as the managers job is to have a high level view and vision of where to go, but not always the details to get there.
You’re missing the point, read the original post. I’m the only person on the team with formal training in this field. My new manager has zero UX experience.
How does this mean discrimination? If they had chosen you and not him, do you think he could have the same perspective that he wasn’t chosen because of being male?
I recommend you log this into the Alertline at Fiserv for review or call HR. While you can report anonymously through the Alertline, it’s harder to help this way.
I would strongly recommend reaching out to your management team to get feedback on why you were overlooked for the role and what you need to do to be considered in the future. But approach this with an open mind as it will help you determine:
- what is valued and expected in the leadership role and whether this aligns to where you want to go in your career. Your department may not value technical mastery and the ability to coach and elevate the skills of the team or they may see this as a different role. In any case, understanding where your management team are at will give you more insights into how and if you want to continue to work with them
- you may get feedback on gaps that you have that you are not aware of. Whilst not always easy to receive better to know than not
- approaching this in a non confrontational way will help you determine if there was bias or if there were other factors in play. Where there was bias how a manager reacts to this self discovery is very telling and will inform whether they are someone you can trust/look for support in the future.
- Ultimately will help you determine if sticking with your current manager and team is right for you or whether you should look at other opportunities internally or externally. There are good teams within bad companies and bad teams within god companies. Take a dispassionate view and decide what is best for you.
Best of luck!
Your manager only needs to understand that the job is complex not the actual complexity. You're the expert that needs to relay issues and present solutions. Your manager is there to help enable you to provide the solution. That could mean purchasing software tools, training or vendor services. That's the 1k foot level view.
Fiserv values other qualifications more than abilities for a given task. Does the person that got the job have an advanced degree or a PMP certificate? I’m not saying that’s right. I’m from the UPS school of “everyone starts on the truck” but this exec team prefers people with MBAs, finance degrees, o project management certification. In other words, they don’t have to know the specifics of your job but they do have to know how to report your progress and follow orders.
How would my new male manager (with zero UX experience) possibly be able to understand the complexity of my job, or give me any relevant work guidance!?
I have a female manager that does not have any training or real knowledge on what I do. That doesn't mean there's any s-xism going on. This is not uncommon as managers need to manage.
I don’t think it is compensation based. We don’t have any UX management from India on our team.
Those stating its ’compensation’ are on the wrong track. When promoting from within the salary bump is staggered. Typically the new manager is underpaid for some time, can be years to catch up due to promotions and merit increases coming from the same bucket. There’s another reason why this woman wasn’t promoted.
Indian males are cheaper and they only hire their own
What makes you say it’s related to compensation?
I suspect this is more related to compensation than anything else.