Recently at work the person who works above me retired. My boss announced that he was opening up the job next week for applications, and announced where he was putting notices. I was a bit confused because our policy states that the position must be posted open internally for a period of ten days, and if no qualified applicants are found internally it may be advertised to the public. I didn't say anything at the staff meeting and went back to my desk and checked the policy manual, I was correct, accept that there is a sentence at the end that says under some circumstances the position may be opened internally and externally first, but all internal candidates will still be given first preference.
I was just coming back from several days off and thought that maybe I had missed the internal opening so I asked my boss if he was accepting internal applications now, he said that was next week, and I was confused so I said oh well I thought it said in the policy manual that it was supposed to open internally first and he said he was going to do them both next week, and walked away. Later he came back and said that I should read the rest of the policy that it says he can open to both at the same time and he was going to do it that way.
I really couldn't tell if he was mad at me for asking about the policy or if he was just joking around. I really just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed the internal opening somehow. Now I'm worried it appeared that I was questioning my boss, and I might have blown my chance to promote. I am more then qualified with 18 years on the job, I was just given a 20% pay bump this year for performance...I'm not sure if I should just let things go with my boss or try and reassure him I wasn't trying to question his authority?