I’ve posted before about my job.
After 22+ years here I’m just about maxed out at my present pay level. I’m very comfortable with my job - it is terribly easy for me and supports a nice lifestyle. But just to see if anything else was out there for me, over the past couple of years I have explored the possibilities of various promotions, transfers, etc. - with consistently negative results.
While I am almost at the top pay level for my position, there is a possibility of a promotion that mgmt doles out pretty infrequently. To get this promotion they have to write up 5 things over a 2 year period showing your ability to do that level work. As you can imagine, mgmt has considerable discretion in characterizing work as of that level or not.
I didn’t think I’d have a chance for it, but I had a couple of high profile things come down in my favor recently, and figured I’d at least take it to the point where I had a clear answer yes or no whether it was any possibility. If the answer is no, then I’m done turning out more work than anyone else in my position. So I brought it up at my performance eval the other week, when my boss was telling my how “awesome” (her word, not mine) the quantity and quality of my work has been. She said she’d look into it.
She came into my office the other day, closed the door, and said, “If it is going to happen, it isn’t going to happen anytime soon.” Said my work over the past 2 years didn’t qualify. Well, I decided to play the good soldier and ask how I could get that type of assignments. She said I might get one from one place and then another from someplace else. I said, “That’s 2 - I need 5.” To which she replied, “Then you have to hope that lightning strikes.”
I said, “Wait a minute, I’ve gotta write that down.” So I wrote “Hope that lightning strikes” on a piece of paper, dated it, and tacked it to the bulletin board behind my chair. The I turned around to face her and said, “Well, if my promotion depends on me waiting for lightning to strike, then it sounds as tho I’d better be spending more time on the golf course!” 
