‘Not everyone is looking to move up the ladder': Why 42% of workers say they'd turn down a promotion

Generally speaking, the promise of corporate America goes something like this: You start off as an entry-level worker, work hard and eventually get promoted a few times until you become a senior-level manager. With each title change comes more money, shinier benefits and more influence — presumably enough to make all the effort worthwhile.

But in recent years, the allure of rising through the ranks at work has lost its pull: Not only are promotions harder to come by, but at the same time, people are vocally turning them down.

The market to find a new job stalled in recent years, as did opportunities for people to get ahead. Among 68 million white-collar workers, just 1.3% were promoted in the first three months of 2024, according to Bloomberg reporting citing ADP data. That's the lowest rate for any first quarter in the last five years, and concerning given that January is one of the biggest months for promotions.

It's enough to impact people's happiness at work. Some 38% of workers say they're not satisfied with their opportunities to be promoted at work, compared with just 26% of workers who are satisfied, according to an October survey of more than 5,200 people from Pew Research Center.

But even if offered the chance to move up, a significant share of workers would say "no thanks": 42% of U.S. workers say they'd turn down a promotion because they're happy with their current job, according to data from Randstad, the HR firm.

So why aren't people happily accepting the chance to move up? Experts and workers say there are a few factors at play:

People are already feeling overworked and underpaid

A lot of people already feel like they're working at the level above what their official job title is. But, they're not getting paid for it.

Most workers, 76%, say they already do more than what's expected of them at work, according to Pew data.

Meanwhile, 29% say they're unhappy with their salary, according to Pew, with many citing concerns that their pay hasn't kept pace with the cost of living, they don't earn enough to pay their bills, and they're being paid less than a colleague who does similar work.

That's exactly what led Sherrika Sanders, 44, of Atlanta to initially decline a promotion with her company several years ago.

At the time, Sanders was offered a promotion from accounting manager to assistant controller. The problem? She was already doing the work of the higher role, and she knew from market rates that she was being underpaid for it.

"Nine times out of 10, before you get a promotion within the same company, you've already started doing the work," Sanders says.

From her perspective, the salary bump that came with the new promotion didn't justify the additional work she'd be expected to do.

She had a conversation with the company's vice president and laid out of her case — including pulling out a "kudos folder" of her noted accomplishments and praise, plus how she'd exceeded project deadlines and benchmarks.

The possibility of declining the offer made a difference, Sanders says: The VP bumped up the salary that day, and Sanders accepted it.

Management is getting more stressful

Many companies have undergone rapid transformations since 2020, including dealing with mass turnover and hiring sprees, adjusting to remote and hybrid work, restructuring teams, adding responsibilities to jobs and facing budget cuts. All of that means a tougher job for managers leading through it all.

A majority, 73%, of workers say their company has experienced disruptive change in the last year, which correlates with high levels of burnout, according to a recent report from Gallup.

The last two years of cost-cutting means that "middle-managers and front-line managers have been disproportionately affected," says Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor. Laying off middle managers leaves more work for the ones who remain, with higher expectations with fewer resources to boot.

The compounding stress of managing could have a trickle-down effect on younger workers: 52% of Gen Z workers recently said they don't want to become managers, according to a study from Robert Walters, a recruiting firm.

Promotions can take you off your own career track

Budget cuts and team restructuring could mean that the new role your boss wants to promote you to doesn't look anything like what you actually want to be doing.

One of the reasons why executives turn down a promotion is when "it doesn't align with their career," says Debra Boggs, founder and CEO of D&S Executive Career Management, an executive search firm. "If you're offered an opportunity that takes you too far into left field away from your functional expertise or where you're trying to head in your career goals, it can really derail you for your next goal. It's really hard to get back to where you left off."

Sanders, the accounting professional, turned down a promotion for this reason, too.

In the summer of 2017, she was overseeing accounting for U.S. and Canada operations for a telecommunications company, when she was offered an expanded role that would supervise a larger team.

However, taking the opportunity would pull her away from work she was more passionate about: transforming accounting processes and empowering her smaller team.

So, she politely declined the offer but showed that she was committed to growing in her current role. She focused on improving her expertise in accounting, investing in training for her team and even took on new speaking and teaching opportunities.

Sanders, who now runs her own consulting firm for accounting professionals and teams, says the experience taught her that career growth isn't just about moving "up." Rather, she could make an impact moving forward in a direction that better aligned with her interests and strengths.

Not everyone wants to be a manager—right now

It's important to remember that not everyone aspires to climbing the career ladder or becoming a manager.

"Many people will try it and decide it's not for them," says Zhao of Glassdoor. "Or there are people who also just never try because they know it's not really something they're interested in."

In those cases, it can be helpful to be vocal about your career goals with your manager, says Sherri Carpineto, 48, a career coach and senior director of operations for a health-care company who lives in Boston.

"Maybe you want to take on more work or a different project and continue to challenge yourself," she says. "But it's OK to do your work and go home and earn a paycheck every day. Not everyone is looking to move up the ladder."

Your decision to not move up the ladder now doesn't have to last forever, she adds.

Carpineto once stayed with a company for 15 years with incremental pay raises and promotions, even though she had offers for higher titles and pay outside the company.

"I did it because I had young kids. I had a mom that was very ill at the time," she says. "And so I was very happy to stay where I was, manage a team, continue to take on some responsibility, but not leave the company or try to become a VP."

At the end of the day, she says, "turning down a promotion now because you're a caretaker, or you're moving across country, you're getting married, or you're just not ready to do that, doesn't mean that you can't decide to do that later."

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