My department head refused to nominate me as one of the outstanding employees :(

I can appreciate the bad feeling you have on this issue. But you cannot solve it by worrying about it. On the contrary try to do good service and in future you may be selected. Instances like this are quite common in organisations where many people work. Please avoid confusion by concentrating more on the work.

:) This always happens in the job. I have myself seen it happen around me a couple of times. But here now we have a mechanism which allows individuals to self nominate themselves with data. If the jury finds that the data is relevant, they would call the employee for an interview and then decide on the award. Cheers! Ram

Oh, you know better than your immediate head. Maybe you should just tell him or her how you felt and just clarify why you were not nominated to the category when you are already 10 years in the job. Maybe you were transferred to a new department and you are new there? there could be a lot of other reasons aside from him or her not really in favor of you. this has happened to me already in the past when we had a new boss and he always favors those people he has worked with before he came to work with us in the same team. He would always pick the best people in that particular group leaving our team always neglected and empty handed. But you know, you cannot put a good man down... eventually other people noticed it and others have brought it to the attention of the managers before him and so he was questioned why we were not being nominated when we or our team qualifies and are even better than the nominees.

That's pretty disapppointing, isn't it ? Yes, I can understand how you feel. Must be very confusing ! Especially regarding the criteria for appointments and promotion of the company. But, I would say that some day the manager will realize what he has done wrong !

This sounds like ego problem. The man who denied you the opportunity to be promoted should be suffering from inferiority complex. There are moments in life when we are forced to have a bumpy ride. But this is only temporary. You are sure to work your way to the top. Don't lose heart.

Oh wow sorry to hear of this and yes ten years my goodness is certainly not new. Though it does make you feel bad, and I don't blame for feeling bad about it as I too would also be upset, but on the flip side your manager did suggest you to be nominated. This in itself says that he does recognize you for your efforts. Though not a consolation, it still says something about you as a good hard worker. Maybe next time around the department head will also recognize it if your manager suggests it again. So do not change anything you are doing and hope it gets better from there.