History Main / PassedOverPromotion

* ''Series/Columbo'': In "Make Me A Perfect Murder", this is related to Key Freestone's motive for murdering her secret boyfriend Mark McAndrews. When Mark is given a promotion to a position in New York, he doesn't give her his old position because, in his words, she "doesn't make decisions", she "makes guesses". At her current position as assistant network executive, he admits she's the best there is, but [[ThePeterPrinciple he doesn't think she has the skills to take over his job.]] After his death and she temporarily takes over his position, Mark is proven right when Kay screws up so badly the network head decides she should go, though he at least offers her a chance to leave on her own terms so as to spare her the embarrassment of being fired.

* This is precisely what happened in the case of [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Benedict Arnold]]. Despite being a clever and daring commander in the early years of the American Revolution, he was repeatedly passed over for promotion. With the added insult of his more politically connected superiors claiming credit for the battles that he had won. That and his debt to the Continental Congress caused him to attempt to sell out West Point, in exchange for money and a place in the British military.

* From the Creator/{{HBO}} BlackComedy Film/ThePentagonWars, we have Colonel Smith, the man put in charge of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle project. Due to the project being in DevelopmentHell, he has been overlooked multiple times for elevation to a generalship.

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[[folder:Web Comics]]

** A common frustration of Marla's in the early days of the comic was that not only was she constantly passed over for promotion to store manager, but then had to ''train'' the person that got the job she wanted. Jerry, the district manager at the time, is a misogynist, which very likely played a factor in her lack of promotion, a factor regional director Lara Silver noticed when interviewing Stuart, saying she hoped he would be more progressive. Marla eventually is promoted to store manager when Stuart is promoted to district manager. Her experience in this trope is why she refused to even consider hiring someone from outside the store to be stockroom supervisor and forcing Cooper to train him, as she found it insulting.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'': the Grumbel's where the strip is set was allowed to have a stockroom supervisor since 2011 but Stuart never revealed that because that would mean promoting Cooper, who he loathes. He also had no intention of telling Marla about it either, at least until Cooper quit, because he knew she'd immediately promote him. She ends up finding out anyway in 2013 from one of the other store managers and promptly promotes him. Josh would later use this knowledge as ammo to try to drive Cooper out of Grumbel's by making him feel unappreciated, but Cooper doesn't rise to the bait.

** The trope does happen in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. In one episode, Homer is describing his assistant to his wife. Later in the episode, she asks about the guy again and Homer says, "You mean my supervisor?" as the assistant was presumably promoted to Homer's equal, then to his supervisor.

--> '''George Sr:''' I have the worst fucking attorneys.

In any case, Bob is upset. All his years of hard work have gone unnoticed and gone to waste. He will often become bitter, [[IdiotBall do something stupid]], and end up getting himself fired, or, if it involves something like embezzlement, stealing company secrets, or straight-up sabotage, arrested. If not, he will almost certainly fall into {{Dismotivation}} and turn into, at best, someone who does the bare minimum to get by, delegates as much of their work onto others as possible, openly fucks around whenever the opportunity presents itself, and just generally does not give a shit and makes no attempt to hide it. He may [[TheResenter resent]] the guy who gets the position instead of him, and if he is enough of an asshole, he may work to undermine them at every opportunity, if not straight-up sabotage them.

* ''Series/{{JAGverse}}'':

* In ''Series/{{JAG}}'' we get to see a promotion selection board in action - and see them choose to pass over first season regular character Commander Lindsey, due to the fact that he never accumulated any courtroom trial experience, or went on an overseas tour as a command staff Judge Advocate. He had drifted from desk job to desk job for about 4 years. For this, he isn’t considered for promotion to Captain. It also shows how these promotion boards actually work - they don’t actually refuse the promotion outright, they just place him among the low preference list. So this way, should some catastrophe befall everyone on the higher preference list, someone like Lindsey could still get that promotion.

* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', should we be allowed into the Brotherhood of Steel bunker at Hidden Valley, we meet the base doctor Senior Scribe Linda Schuler. She is embittered over having been passed over for the position of Head Scribe in favor of the lecherous Head Scribe Taggart. Nothing comes out of this though.

* ''Webcomic/TerminalLance'' frequently criticizes the "cutting scores" promotion system used in the US Marine Corps, in particular the fact that the score to be promoted to full corporal from lance corporal is so much higher for infantry specialties[[note]]The author was an 0351 Infantry Assaultman (now renamed Infantry Assault Marine), specializing in rockets and breaching.[[/note]] than pogs[[note]][[FunWithAcronyms "person other than grunt"]][[/note]]. The title of the comic, in fact, is service slang for a Marine who gets stuck at lance corporal for several years before retiring (the author was offered promotion to corporal as an incentive to reenlist, but declined).

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Tapestry", Q shows Picard an alternate reality where he never got into an Academy-days fight with three surly Nausicaans that quickly gave him a knife through the heart, hence he didn't need a replacement mechanical one. In that alternate timeline, Picard made it only to Lieutenant Junior Grade, regularly passed over by his superiors because they felt he showed no evidence of drive and ambition, never took risks to do what he felt was right. And, in this world where he never faced death like that, and later on always played it safe... they were right.
* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' Harry Kim ends up stranded in the Delta Quadrant on his very first day of Starship duty as an Ensign, and is clearly a wide-eyed newbie. Over the years he evolved into a master engineer, a holographic technology expert, a veteran of dozens of conflicts, and an integral part of the crew. He was never promoted beyond Ensign. Even in a real-life navy, after 7 years of exceptional service he should've at least gotten 2 promotions to full Lieutenant and possibly even a 3rd to Lieutenant Commander, and Starfleet's MildlyMilitary natural usually results in promotions coming ''faster'' would be the case in real militaries. Even moreso in wartime, and ''Voyager'' saw rather a lot of combat over the course of its journey home, particularly fighting essentially a one-ship war against [[TheDreaded the Borg]] at times. He rarely showed any signs of bitterness, even with his best friend being made a lieutenant on his first day despite being a criminal who was dishonorably discharged from Starfleet.
** Even more incredibly, later in the series said friend is demoted back to ensign and later promoted back to lieutenant again ''for no apparent reason.''

* A lot of Anakin Skywalker's resentment towards the Jedi in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels stem from this trope. In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', he shows frustration at not being a Jedi Knight, which he feels is long overdue. He doesn't get that until during The Clone Wars. In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', there's added resentment when he's given a seat on the Jedi Council (which Obi-Wan points out is something very rare, seeing how young he is), yet ''isn't'' given the rank of Jedi Master (which is ''also'' unprecedented for a member of the Council). This resentment is justified due to the events of ''WesternAnimation/TheCloneWars''. Late in the series, Ahsoka is framed for bombing the Jedi Temple, and the Council votes to expel her from the Order for political expediency. When her name is cleared, she is offered reinstatement, alongside a promotion to Knight, which meant Anakin would likely have been promoted to Master (successfully training a Padawan to the rank of Knight is generally seen as proof that a Knight is ready for promotion to Master). However, she declines, leaving the Order instead, costing Anakin his promotion.

Bob has been working in the same job for 10 years. He put his life into the career, doing the same boring task again and again. He's always been punctual and he's never complained. He is certainly the best at doing what he's doing. But he's always been looking to get out of his boring job and move up the corporate ladder. Fortunately for him, one of the managers quit and a new position has just opened up. Bob applies for the promotion, and the boss appears pleased. Bob is excited. All his years of hard work and toil are finally beginning to pay off. Nothing can ruin his mood. The big boss is finally ready to reveal his decision, and it's....Somebody else.

** In the first future episode, a near-retirement age Homer is shown still working his job in Sector 7G, with Milhouse (who would have joined the plant ''decades'' after a Homer) as his supervisor.

* Averted but discussed in Mark Haley's [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Imperial Guard]] novel ''Literature/{{Baneblade}}'': Bannick's armored company commanding officer tells him he'd really like to keep him around as a good tank squadron commander rather than promote him to the more prestigious superheavy company (especially as he enters it at the lowest echelon, third gunner), but seeing him promoted for his recent accomplishment will boost troop morale.[[note]]It also boost Bannick's morale a lot, since serving aboard a Baneblade, even as third gunner, was his dream.[[/note]]

In any case, Bob is upset. All his years of hard work have gone unnoticed and gone to waste. He will often become bitter, [[IdiotBall do something stupid]], and end up getting himself fired, or, if it involves something like embezzlement, stealing company secrets, or straight-up sabotage, arrested. If not, he will almost certainly fall into {{Dismotivation}} and turn into, at best, someone who does the bare minimum to get by, delegates as much of their work onto others as possible, openly fucks around whenever the opportunity presents itself, and just generally does not give a shit and makes no attempt to hide it. He may [[TheResenter resent]] the guy who gets the position instead of him.

** In the first future episode, a near-retirement age Homer is shown still working his job in Sector 7G, while Lenny and Carl have been promoted to the boardroom and Milhouse is now his supervisor.

* In ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'', when Sergeant Colon is temporarily promoted to Captain of the Watch, Corporal Nobbs[[note]]who, it must be said, ''really'' shouldn't be entrusted with any more responsibility than he has...[[/note]] starts heavily hinting that he'll be needing a new sergeant. Colon thinks about this, and promotes a troll officer by the name of Flint. Nobby repeats "Sergeant ''Flint''" several times when Colon tells him this. This is probably why he ended up as the ringleader when the entire City Watch ended up ''on strike'', although Fred becoming DrunkWithPower and turning into The Neidermeyer didn't exactly help.

In any case, Bob is upset. All his years of hard work have gone unnoticed and gone to waste. He will often become bitter, [[IdiotBall do something stupid]], and end up getting himself fired, or, if it involves something like embezzlement, stealing company secrets, or straight-up sabotage, arrested. If not, he will almost certainly fall into {{Dismotivation}} and turn into, at best, someone who does the bare minimum to get by, delegates as much of their work onto others as possible, openly fucks around whenever the opportunity presents itself, and just generally does not give a shit and makes no attempt to hide it.

* An episode of ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'' had this as a murderer's motive; he thought his boss was sending his (younger, less experienced) colleague to various business seminars (the colleague was [[spoiler: really using fake seminars set up by a company that was providing alibis for his affair]]) which led to a confrontation with the boss (who had no idea what was going on) and the murder.

* This trope plays into the origin of the Monica Rambeau ComicBook/CaptainMarvel -- despite being a very competent lieutenant, she was passed over multiple times for the position of captain of the harbor patrol. The harbormaster claims her way of working is too unorthodox and not "by the book"; Monica claims sexism, since those who were promoted were men. She ends up quitting after becoming Captain Marvel and having her first heroic adventure.