About 6 months ago, I started work with a new company. I walked away from a job with a slightly better title (regional vs. local responsibility) and a substantial counter-offer from my former employer. The primary advantage of the new job was less travel. I work for a large corporation.

My situation is an unusual one in that the job I was hired to fill was still occupied by someone who was about to be terminated (a department manager) when I was hired for the job. This person was in his mid 60s at the time, and my in-person interview was both with him and my now boss. During the interview, my now boss basically said this guy is about to retire, would you like to have his position when he does?

After the interview, I sent a thank you note to both the person who has since been terminated and my now boss. My now boss wrote back thanking me, and saying that he thought I would be an excellent manager for the department.

A few days before my last day with my old company, I got cold feet and thought about backing out. I called my now boss, and he encouraged me to come to his company. He told me confidentially that he was in the process of terminating the existing manager of the department who I had interviewed with along with my now boss, but that it was taking some time because of his age and decades of service to the company. He indicated that he would be terminated within two months and I would have his job. As it turns out, the old department manager had been threatening my now boss with his retirement for quite some time. During my interview, I thought he was in on it, but looking back, he looked really uncomfortable, and knowing this, I suspect my now boss hadn't discussed offering me the old guy's job with him "after he retires" prior to the interview.

I went ahead and made the move, and after two hellish months, the old department manager was terminated. Unfortunately, as it turns out, my now boss accomplished this by eliminating his position entirely as a "downsizing" so the job title I was supposed to get was eliminated. The department I work in is 5 people, and we're basically all just supposed to manage ourselves. There is no manager for the department.

I've been told by some of my co-workers who've been with the company a while that the downsizing tactic to terminate an embedded employee has been used before and that the company's legal department imposes a 1 1/2 year timeout before someone else can be put into a downsized position.

My now manager basically played dumb about recruiting me to be the department manager after the termination of the old one. I had a meeting to speak with him about it afterward, and his comment was something along the lines of "I don't know what you were expecting, but we've been through a downsizing, and that position doesn't exist anymore."

The position that was eliminated here still exists at all other branches of my company.

I have a few different emails saying that I was going to be the department manager, but no official written job offer. During the period between when I was hired and when the old department manager was terminated, my now boss asked me to draw up a reorganization plan for the department, on which I listed myself as the department manager. He said (via email) at the time that the plan looked workable and he planned to put it into action.

I'm curious to know if my boss has done anything wrong by telling me in both written and verbal form that I would have this position, then eliminating it entirely. I know telling me the details about the former department manager's termination goes against company policy, and that's something he shouldn't have done, but I'm not really interested in getting him in trouble - I just want the position I was promised during my recruitment.

At this point, I greatly regret leaving my old company and walking away from their counter offer - a tens of thousands of dollars per year raise.

My company has an HR process, and I've contemplated talking to them about it, but I'd obviously have to reveal that I knew my boss's plans to terminate the old guy before it happened. If the outcome likely won't be positive, I figure it's probably best to not kick the hornet's nest and just hope for the best.

The reason I'm concerned is some of the others in my department have stated that they're interested in the position for themselves once it opens back up, and my boss has alluded to potentially giving it to one of them.