I posted this on facebook too. Please keep it quiet, I'm not ready to broadcast to my family that I lack faith in my husband's ability to follow through :-P
H has been a manager at Albertson's (large grocery store chain) for 8 years or so. He started working there as a cashier in 2000 and quickly progressed through. He was made a manager not too long before we got married in 2002. He left for one year in 2004, then returned when he decided to go back to school and finish his degree. During that year he was a manager at Lowe's.
Since he returned to Albertson's in 2005, he has not received a promotion or raise. He has been passed over at least twice...there might have been a third one in there, I can't remember. It has been made quite clear that he will likely not move up or make more money, ever. This is really disheartening. He is the only one there that has his degree, and they hold this over him - "you'll just leave when you find a better job." It's been 4 years and he hasn't left yet, so I'm not sure why they continue this line of thinking, but whatever. He hates his job and complains about it on a daily basis, but he hasn't done anything to change the situation.
I've been waiting for him to start looking elsewhere since the day he got his degree. He started looking but never applied, then quit looking all together. A few months ago he started looking again but wasn't applying. With the loss of the most recent promotion last week, it sounds like he's finally ready to start looking and applying!
At the same time, we happened to be at our favorite local paint store the other day and saw that they have an opening for an Assistant Manager at a store near our house. The starting pay is what he currently makes, the top end of the salary is $20k more than what he makes right now. The store is also open much better hours - only 7 am to 6 pm, instead of 6 am to midnight, so he'd be working better hours. Plus, they are closed on a ton of holidays that he currently has to work, including Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Please pray that he will find the motivation and desire to apply for this (and other) positions.