It’s getting about the time where one of my bosses at work wants to do periodic counseling/interviews. I know exactly what it’s going to consist of, because I hear it every time. That I need to take on extra duties and responsibilities. Why? Because it would help my chances for promotion.
That’s fine and no doubt true. The rub being that I don’t particularly desire promotion, nor do I wish to incur extra duties and responsibilities at this time. I’m relitativly content in my position now. I’m content to do my job, get the work done, do what they tell me to do and go home at a decent time. I’m willing to help out others who need it and frequently do. I just don’t want to volunteer myself for a massive amount of extra work and BS I don’t want to do in the first place.
Part of it is that I’m not really a people person nor have I ever lead anyone(which some of these entail), and a promotion would entail having to be responsible for people. There’s also the workload. A promotion infers some minor benefits and a bit more money, except there seems to be an exponential increase in crap they have to deal with, which, right now, just doesn’t seem worth it. I’ve worked some long hours at this job, and the people with those extra duties work even longer hours. I’ve got enough on my plate for the near future that I’m just not interested in shouldering anything else if I can help it right now(and I’m sure my other work will suffer if I do).
So to me, I really have no desire to do any of those things. Call it a lack of ambition or maybe I just don’t care enough. The problem is, I’m fairly sure my boss would never accept this explanation. In fact, I suspect, if I were to say “I don’t want extra responsibility”, he’d probably assign me extra responsibility.
I’m not even sure if this is a question and not just a rant. I understand ambition and workaholic work ethic, I just don’t share them. I long ago realized that sometimes good enough is good enough, but obviously not everyone feels that way, that you should always be trying to do more, so you can get a promotion and more money, and do more work, even if none of that makes you happier.(and for some reason, the Peter Principle keeps coming to mind). Maybe that makes me a selfish person, but then again, I know they are pushing to make their workload easier by trying to shovel it onto others.
Do you have anything going on outside of work that you can use to explain to your bosses why you are content with your current work? You know they won’t understand the real reason, so is there something going on in your life that they could wrap their minds around, even if it really does not take up all that much of your time? “I really don’t want to take the extra classes and greater responsibilities, because my SO and I are teaching Marriage Encounters at our church; or I’m working on my pilot’s license; or I’m teaching EASL classes; or I’m the coach for 2 t-ball teams; or I’m leaning a 2nd language; or I’m focused on working on my relationship with my SO (this one can backfire); or I’m focused on taking care of my father, whose getting up in years; or I’ve got a life goal of writing a book, if I don’t get it done in the next two years I won’t get it done ever.”
perhaps that you do the company the most good where you are.
i’m in your boat as well. i like the production side of things over watching the production produce. when you are a good,stable, rock of an employee they are always looking to move you up or around.
You’ll never know unless and until you give it. Many managers are themselves ambitious, and frequently pestered by ambitious employees demanding promotion, and come to assume until told otherwise that everybody is the same.
How about: “I know my strengths and my abilities. My present position matches those strengths and abilities perfectly and I’m very happy here doing this job. Any promotion would entail skills that aren’t in my nature or personality. I’ve tried them (i.e., those skills / responsibilities) in the past and couldn’t produce the same high-quality work that I’m used to producing. Subsequently, I was miserable while I had that job. I feel the best contribution I can make to the company is to stay in my present position.”
In a more general sense, when you DO have this conversation with the boss (or with your spouse, or your mother, or whoever else is nagging you about being more ambitious) it helps to present your side as non-defensively as you possibly can.
In other words, pretend as if it’s not even an issue, as inconsequential as your favorite color. Why, of course you’re not a workaholic! It’s like, *of course *you ate dinner last night!
Don’t present your side defensively, as if you already think the other person has made a value judgement against you.
**Jharvey’s **suggestion is a good one. Whenever you want something in the business world, you have to present it as something that would benefit the corporation.
I wouldn’t tell him anything like that. Smile, nod, make the appropriate noises and get through the review. Don’t commit to anything beyond “I’ll try to improve in that area”, but otherwise toe the company line.
You don’t want to be promoted or assume additional duties now…but that may change in the future. No sense hanging a big ol’ “DO NOT PROMOTE” sign around your neck you may not be able to remove.
Another thing is that sometimes, companies forget that not everyone is a perpetual ladder-climber. They fear that if they don’t “reward” their good workers with promotions and so on, they’ll leave. So it might help to stress that you enjoy your current position, and feel confident that it will continue to challenge you and offer you opportunities to learn and grow well into the future. In short, “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”
Is your review tied to a raise in anyway? That changes the scope a bit.
If your boss is asking you to take on extra duties, is this because he wants to see you promoted? Or is it because he is too chicken to tell you that you’re not working when you should be. It could be a subtle dig.
I’ve worked with people who like where they are and in general that was fine with me when I was a manager, so long as they didn’t block anyone.
For instance, I worked with Dan a front office manager. He said, “Mark I like my job, it pays OK and I’m satisfied.” The problem was in this company there was no way to jump over him. So we had very good asst managers that wanted to be a front office manager, but couldn’t because Dan wouldn’t move. So those excellent asst managers, took their skills to another company and became front office managers there.
So in that sense it really did hurt the company, 'cause we lost good people.
Some managers take these training courses and never realize different rules apply. For instance, I managed a call center. We had five full time employees (including the owner) and between 25 - 100 part time operators. Now the owner was always trying to motovate these operators. I was like “Bill, all these operators work 1 or 2 days a week. They are only here to get extra money.” Bill would then quote all the pat H/R things, and I was like “Judith is a computer programmer, she’s here 'cause she ran up her credit card bill, do you really think she cares about this job other than the pay?” I said “Chad, is a 65 year old man who ran up too much money at the casino.”
But Bill never got it. None of those people who worked as part time operators cared anything but getting extra money.
So while I see there’s nothing wrong with your attitude, so long as you’re not blocking someone’s advancement, some people will never get it
Well, it factors into promotion(which I’m not eligable for yet and won’t be for another year) which comes with a raise.
As for does he want to see me promoted, I’m not sure. I’m actually not sure what he’s thinking half the time, because he has communications issues. He’s the kind of guy who yells at people because he didn’t tell them to do something(and thus they didn’t do it) but he thinks he did(maybe he was thinking it really loudly). Essentially, it seems like people get yelled at for not reading his mind.
Also, I’m not really blocking anyone because there’s a limited number of slots to move up into. By not bucking for promotion, it helps the others around me. Considering there are plenty of people more senior then me and who are better at the same job then I am, there’s not a lot of chance of me getting it anytime soon anyways, unless I become super excellent at my job(with an exponential increase of effort and time on my part). Even then it’s not guaranteed.
Are you going to be content doing the same job making roughly the same salary 10, 15 or 20 years from now? Or do you expect to keep incurring large raises even though you continue to perform the same work?
Where I work, a year down the line seems like a really long time. I’m not even thinking ten years, because I’m probably not going to be working there in ten years. If I am, then yeah, I’ll trying a lot harder for promotion.
I’ve had to have this discussion over the years. For me, it always came down to what’s now known as ‘work-life’ balance, but at the time there wasn’t a buzzword for it so I had to muddle through on explanations as best I could.
For the last five years or so, citing ‘work-life balance’ has worked just fine. I tell the truth - that I value my home life and that I need that down-time in order to be a productive employee. That if I take on more duties and longer hours, that I’ll become stressed and unhappy because I’d be following someone else’s dreams for my life, and that those dreams don’t align with my personality at all.
I point out that diversity (use this word; HR lap it up) is essential in the workplace, and that people’s motivations are different - some are motivated by money, some by prestige, some by the sense that they’re a valued contributor, and some by other things such as family. I fall into the third and fourth categories, and taking me out of my comfort area and placing me in a position where I’ll feel both that I’m no longer excelling in my role, while also impairing the Quality Time I get to spend with my loved ones, is a sure way to making a happy and functional employee into a sullen and disgruntled one.
By this stage their eyes have generally glazed over and the issue gets buried for another year. The trick is to present it as a self-evident and not remotely contentious scenario.
I have a similar problem to the o.p.; I’m being moved (more like ramrodded) into a managerial position, primarily, it seems, because I’m reasonably good at understanding cross-disciplinary issues, great at written communication, and because I’ll make a decision on what should be done and go forth. These are, in my estimation, good qualities for a troubleshooter (lead program engineer or chief engineer, although I’m not experienced enough for either yet) but not really what one needs in a department manager who will spend most of his or her time dealing with personnel issues, finding and delegating work, adjusting budgets and schedules, et cetera.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have gotten through to the p.t.b. that success at one position does not equal success at another, and I’m the stuckee and heir presumptive should another suitable candidate not appear by the time the current manager decides to abandon his post. My suggestions and direct statements to date about my lack of interest or professed non-qualification for the role have fell on deaf ears, and I fear that a direct refusal will be viewed as betrayal or unprofessional conduct, and I’ll be out on my ass or relegated to some pointless role. It’s made me start gandering about at other opportunities even though I’m mostly satisfied with where I am and what I’m doing; unquestionably the best job I’ve held in my career, and I think I would be hard pressed to find a position with as much technical variety and that plays to my strengths as well as this one.
You can say that your current position allows you to have a good balance between work and the rest of your life.
And you don’t have to tell them some specific ambition you’re working on.
One benefit of using the “balance” line is that if you change your mind, you’re not stuck having made any statements about being un-ambitious or whatever. Life isn’t static, so you can start bucking for promotion at any time without having to backpedal.
Considering your description of your workplace, I wonder if they’re saying it would help your chances for promotion in order to give you a carrot, when in reality they kinda don’t think you’re pulling your weight. Since advanced positions don’t seem to be available, maybe this is an annoying code.
It’s hard to tell. I had my interview and my boss said “You’re doing all that’s expected of you. You’re meeting the standard, but you need to do more”.
I kept my mouth shut and nodded. I already know that some of the people I work for seem to believe that work should be the most important thing in your life, and a coworker was told that work should come before his family.