AITA for not giving a woman a promotion at work because I saw her clap after every word when telling someone how to do som**hing?
The narrator, who runs a company, recently had a supervisor position open up in their warehouse and decided to promote from within. Due to the promotion offering an extra £5 an hour, there was high interest.
Simultaneously, the company experienced a busy period, requiring the hiring of ten new staff members from over 1000 applicants, a process the narrator managed while trying to maintain above-market pay rates.
During the onboarding of these new employees, the narrator witnessed a senior worker, Heather, react angrily to a timid new starter who asked a basic question about where to place an item. Heather responded with extreme condescension, drawing out her words aggressively.
This behavior immediately caused the narrator to remove Heather from consideration for the supervisor role and confront her about the incident, leading Heather to file a complaint about unfair treatment.
The narrator now questions if telling Heather the specific reason immediately, rather than waiting until the final promotion decision, was wrong.
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The narrator is caught between upholding professional standards regarding employee treatment and the procedural fairness of when feedback about promotion eligibility should be delivered.
The central conflict is whether the immediate, direct consequence—losing the promotion opportunity based on observed behavior—was a justified response to witnessing potential leadership misconduct, or if it const*tutes pr****ure judgment that overrides standard HR processes.
The situation requires weighing the narrator's right to select a leader based on observed character against the employee's expectation of being judged solely on formal application criteria.
Is the narrator justified in immediately revoking promotion consideration based on a single, observed display of poor interpersonal conduct, or should they have waited until the formal application review was complete before delivering the negative feedback?
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