Yes, I reached the level in my career where I wanted to be within nine years and then I stayed at that level for the rest of my career. I was offered promotions several times but turned them down.
For the most part, I stayed in the job I had because it was a much better job. But due to seniority and overtime I reached the point where I was also making more money than I would have in the higher job they were offering me.
What? You don’t enjoy those multi hour meetings where people brainstorm ways to improve productivity by cutting steps that take several seconds of effort? Those are awesome.
As a professor, I was automatically a candidate for dept. chair, when the position became open, as it did every three years. There was a small increase in salary and a massive increase in paper work. I was happy doing my teaching, research, and committee work, as little of the last as possible and always took myself out of the running. Good decisions.
Same same for being a teacher. I’ve turned down every offer/vote for Dept. chair or any other position cold. I like doing what I’m doing and teaching what I teach, and I plan to retire in this position.
I was doing typesetting on the night shift. An opening occurred in the day shift, and one by one, the other night people went in and begged to the moronic owners for the day shift job. Everyone except me, though I was the most qualified. I realized that working closely with the moronic owners would be an express ticket to the looney bin. So they gave me the job. When they told me, they also revealed that there wouldn’t be a pay raise, or any other benefits. Just more work and more responsibility. I think the sound of me slamming the door on my way out is still reverberating.
Oh, and they went out of business within a month.
Socially, I seem to always exist in the uncanny valley. Not weird enough to be interesting, and not normal enough to be completely accepted. Most social interactions for me are journeys through a sparse, but dangerous minefield. Given enough time, I’ll step on a big one.
For that reason, I’ve turned down all offers of management positions. I haven’t had many, but when my current company offered to send me to management “charm school”, I declined. I’d be OK for awhile, but then one day I’d hear it…
The Click of the Claymore*. I can hear it; Right after I step on it. But never in time to avoid the explosion.
*Name of infamous land mine
Not a promotion exactly, but I declined an offer to work for another company at a much higher salary. After meeting with them a few times I was more and more convinced that their culture was completely broken and their project doomed to failure. A year later I still had my old job and they had laid off 70% of their staff.
Early in my engineering career, I wanted to be my boss’ boss. Then I saw what was involved in being a supervisor and a manager. I realized that I preferred the design and problem solving over meetings and politics.
Some years later, in a new engineering position, I was doing a meet-and-greet with my second level supervisor and he asked if I wanted to remain technical or move into management. I told him I wanted to stay on the technical side, and he proceeded to tell my why I was wrong. However, I never applied for a promotion, and only once did I serve as a project lead. So while I never turned down a specific promotion, I was diligent about letting future supervisors know that I much preferred being a worker bee. And I know the last boss I had before I retired really appreciated having someone of my experience and with my knowledge base working on his team.
He, on the other hand, took a promotion about a year after I left, and he’s been pretty miserable ever since. Unfortunately for him, he’s still 10 years away from retirement.
I could take a promotion & pay raise right now. But that would mean moving or commuting to the Midwest for work every week. Versus living here on the beach and working many fewer days per month with far less hassle.
In my several careers / worklives this is the first time I haven’t grabbed the promo the moment it’s available. Time will tell whether I’m being smart or lazy / foolish.
Yep. We had a situation where the company had a very poorly performing region that had been that way for years and what they would do was promote promising low-rank managers to regional supervisor then fire them after six months for not fixing something that upper management hadn’t solved in years. It was a huge waste of talent - we lost a lot if promising people due to this.
The irony? The company was hugely reluctant to fire under-performing managers, so incompetents could linger forever. But someone good with the ambition to take on more responsibility was expendable.
Yep. In fact, I turned down a zoo.
My parents were the owners, who started the place up from scratch, and I’d worked there on-and-off since I was a teenager, doing pretty well every job in the place, in between trips away. My parents were getting to the pre planning for Dad’s retirement (and Mum’s, but she’s younger), and offered me the chance to train as manager, then gradually take over the whole centre as they dropped out, eventually passing ownership on to me.
The place is great, I loved working there, but… the location. It’s a fairly rural holiday/retirement area, I barely know anyone. I wouldn’t be able to afford my own place as house prices are sky high, and my pay would not be. I’d also be trying to replace both oarents- there would be no time away, not really, unless maybe I got really lucky finding a reliable assistant. I’d also be spending most of my time in the office, not doing the work I actually enjoyed (at least, I would be if the place was going to continue as a success).
Anyway, I turned it down, and they decided instead, as neither me nor my brother wanted to take over, to get charitable status, so they could stay involved, but not have sole responsibility. I’m on the board, so I’m still involved, but I live some hours away, in a much more interesting and lively area, which works pretty well for me.
I could do with a better work situation here, being minimally employed and barely scraping through half the time, but I don’t regret that choice.
Yep - Software Asset Manager.
The company had pinned the blame on previous failed audits on the six previous software asset managers and canned them. They didn’t have the tools to do software asset management (which was my role without the title, anyway) and weren’t interested in spending the money to buy them. As long as they kept pinning the blame and letting the person go, they felt they were fine. I kept trying to explain to them that one of these days one of these people was going to catch on, keep a copy of the files at home, and call the BSA when they were canned. They were a little shocked when I turned down the job - but they were paying me really well to do the analyst portion of the job - and I pretty much knew I couldn’t stay there anyway.
A few months later I left. A few months after that they laid off my manager and most of the team for a failed audit.
In retrospect, I’m not sorry I turned them down - or left - and I should have left sooner. And I suspect had I not left, they wouldn’t have laid me off - they would have transferred me organizationally, given me a new boss and over time a different defacto role. And I could have had a long and very frustrating career there. They both loved me and feared me. I got shit done, and I’d roundabout told them that I knew how to call the BSA.
It would have been a lateral move, but one that would have bumped my salary. I turned it down after I was offered more pay if I stayed in my current position.
Yes, I was offered a managerial role in a dysfunctional shop. No, thank you.
A few years ago they signed up a bunch of employees for a series of management training seminars. I was one of them for some reason. My response was to not show up for any of them.
While doing a college cooperative education job as a mainframe operator at a big electrical parts manufacturer, I was offered a job doing COBOL programming on that same mainframe. I declined and went to work for a small business.
I guess I would have been alright doing COBOL but it’s a wordy boring language and I expect the job would have been boring as well. Plus the plant closed 5 or 10 years later, it had already been through a couple name changes while worked there.
Good god,yes. On the one hand, I’m way better suited to be a Cmdr Riker than a Captain Picard.
On the other, unless I can actually punch lazy, obstinate, or obstructive subordinates in the throat, I don’t really belong in a position of authority.
What were the Boy Scouts going to do to them?
I Googled, but Wiki suggested Belarusian Socialist Assembly and I don’t think that’s what you meant either.
Regards,
Shodan
Yes. I was working as a temp word processor for a company that was laying off full-time word processors. The budget still had money in it for a temp, so they kept me on. They offered to hire me away from Western Temps and take me on as full-time and I said, “um, no, thanks. I’ll just keep working.”
I turned down a promotion to a higher level in a different career track simply because the differential work, stress, and potential job volatility far exceeded the monetary benefit. My company is one where, unlike the stereotype of golf-course 3-martini-lunch executives, the higher up you climb the harder you work.
The offer has been left “permanently open” to me, however, as a temptation I guess.