If so, why did you do it? What factors did you consider? And do you regret it now?
Yes.
It was a promotion to Project Manager, and I turned it down after reading the e-mails and attending one meeting on the project I was supposed to take over.
[ul][li]The increase in salary was not enough to make it worthwhile.[/li][li]I didn’t trust the company I worked for to actually pay me the increase. (I was correct in that assumption - they ripped me off for the increase they promised when I became a manager.) [/li][li]It became obvious almost at once that the project was going to fail, and they were hoping to be able to blame it on a scapegoat ‘who wasn’t experienced at managing projects’.[/li][li]The reporting structure was set up so that the project manager had all the responsiblity but none of the authority.[/ul]I was correct in my assesment - the project did, in fact, go down in flames, the client left, and all the blame was put on the fool who accepted the position who got canned. The management of the company seemed to be evenly divided between incompetents, and outright crooks. [/li]
They contacted me a week or so ago to see if I was interested in working for them as a consultant. I said No.
Regards,
Shodan
I was given a promotion to account manager with a huge food company. It required moving 90 miles away. I loved the food business.
I turned it down because the wife had just got a full-time teaching position after substitute teaching for 5 years.
I often think how it could have been. However, years later the food giant was bought out by a bigger food giant. So, who knows?
Not turned down as such, but rather chose to not pursue a promotion opportunity. I finished a BS degree while enlisted in the US Air Force and started the process to become an officer. While this was going on I was select for promotion to Master Sergeant (E-7) plus I was in a career that I really liked. So I decided to stay enlisted instead of becoming a 2nd Lieutenant (O-1) even though the pay would have been better eventually. It was the old ‘being at the top of a small hill vs the bottom of a large mountain’ quandary.
I’ve passed up the opportunity to get into middle management in the last few years. I’d rather be a well paid worker-bee.
I’ve never done it, but I could easily see myself doing it. If I get promoted past where I am now, my performance will be much more heavily driven by sales goals, which I’m not really interested in. What I’m doing now is fine with me.
My wife teaches at a couple of private high schools and she was recently approached by the people who run one of them to ask if she’d be willing to become an assistant principal, with the idea of taking over as principal in a few years. She hasn’t decided yet but is leaning heavily against accepting the offer. Too much stress outside of school hours, and plus she’s afraid she might not enough authority to be effective in that particular school.
Yes. I just don’t like being in charge or being held responsible for what other people do.
Yes. The additional pay didn’t compensate for the additional hours and paperwork. I don’t give a rip about titles.
I turned down a promotion to supervisor. It would have tied me too closely to a single account and its crazy-ass client.
A few years later I ended up in the position by default, being the most experienced person still working on the account. I didn’t enjoy it. Like JerrySTL says, I’d rather be a well paid (heck, even just a decently paid) worker bee.
In fairness, though, I’d say deciding you don’t want a promotion is something you shouldn’t do until you’ve had a few years experience with the company and the work. Some people turn out to be really good at it, and really enjoy it.
Yes, when I worked as a lowly figure clerk in a bank basement long, long ago. Last century, even. Some smart bank personnel manager spotted me, thought I had potential because I had learned to operate the IBM Proof Machine all on my own, and offered to pay for my entire college costs as long as I would accept a future position as bank auditor, with the sky as the promotion limit.
I turned it down because an accounting education was not what I wanted; the bank job was just a temporary one between higher-education years; and I doubted if the bank would pay for me to earn an engineering or science degree in another state. I was flattered by the offer, but have never regretted my decision.
Yes.
My manager at one company that I worked for suggested that I interview for the purchasing manager position in the department that was coming open. I actually filled in on this from time to time and liked the duties. The dealbreaker was salary.
As an hourly, I had opportunity for almost unlimited overtime if I wanted to work on the production floor. I usually took at least four hours a week. This meant that in the same amount of hours that the PM put in (or less sometimes) I was making more than she was.
A friend showed me something spotted in the Daily paper.
I had been replaced as Vice-President of our company.
I did not know I was the Vice-President.
Apparently for legal reasons the company needed a full roster. I was da man for a year & a ½ and never knew. :dubious:
I went into the boss & said, “You could have fired me to my face.”
The look I got was priceless. I was not known to read the inner pages of newspapers. But I had friends who did… Bawahahaha
For years after that, every time an announcement of a promotion was made at a company impromptu meeting as was the custom I made a point of grinning at the boss. Squirmed every time. <veg>
I got my perks in other areas that actually helped me. Being VP for real would not have been a good fit. :eek:
Yep. I was in the banking industry all of 2 weeksa when I was offered a promotion to Head Teller. I took that one, figuring i could fake until I make it. Must have faked it well, because a few months later I was offered a Branch Manager position! I turned that one down, knowing full well I didn’t have the experience necessary. Never regretted it. I accepted the same promotion about a year later knowing I could succeed.
Twice now, same promotion.
Accepting it would mean not only an increase to my workload, but a change from hourly to salaried. I already work 50-60hr weeks almost year-round, and have for the 6 years I’ve been here. It would effectively be a pay decrease to take the promotion.
Fortunately, my manager and VP understand this and support me turning it down. (They don’t have a say in that aspect of our pay.) The second time was like, “You don’t want it, right?” “Right.”
No regrets. I already work too much, and it’s nice knowing my OT means OT pay. I have managed to save a lot of money the last few years, and the security from that is better than a shinier job title.
This.
The job was similar to the one I was doing but just different enough there’d be additional training that I’d have to learn on my own in my own time and as I was doing the job. The pay increase was very small and there was potential to have to come in at nights or on the weekend and work until a thing was fixed.
Yes. I turned down a promotion to detective because I didn’t want to be out of the patrol sector. My goal was to get promoted in the patrol sector.
Couple years later I was faced with the fact that wasn’t going to happen. Just wasn’t any room for it. When the next promotion opportunity came up I took it, even though it was in the bureau. This is because I had retirement on my mind and pension amounts are determined by how much one makes in their 3 highest years.
Making 15K extra a year increased my pension considerable. So my last 4 years were spent as an investigator.
I fucking hated it. And I almost choked the life out of the Lieutenant I had to answer to. But every month when that pension get’s deposited I’m glad I did it.
My dad did because it would’ve involved longer hours and lots of travel he didn’t want to do.
This is me too. Don’t try to make me a manager, I will not do it.
put me down as well for ‘declining to put myself into middle management’. Did it once, for a year, and at the end of the year everyone was satisfied that it wasn’t my thing. I don’t tolerate meetings well, for one thing…
Yes.
It didn’t involve a pay increase, but I make enough money, so that wasn’t an issue.
I later accepted the job, after being assured I would have the necessary people working for me.
Five years later, it’s going well.
Kind of. They said I was turning down a great promotion opportunity. My feeling was offering me my old job back after replacing me with the supervisor’s pet (while I was on vacation without even telling me when I got back - just found a bunch of meeting cancellations in Outlook) then finding the pet didn’t work out didn’t count as a promotion. I’d already moved on to another project by that time and sure as hell wasn’t going to come back, even for the extra money.
So I guess spite was my reason and I have absolutely no regrets. The supervisor that pulled the switcheroo, on the other hand…