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Would you ever turn down a promotion? Even if it meant more money, more responsibility, and more opportunities to grow?

Until recently—I didn’t understand why anyone would pass up a promotion. Why would you turn down a move that’s essentially saying, “OK, great job. You’ve done all you can here. We want you to move up to this higher position because we think you’re capable of it and ready for it”?

How do you rationalize a move like this?

Welcome to the Big Leagues, Hayseed

Until a few days ago, I equated a promotion with getting called up to the Major Leagues. No player would ever turn that promotion down—it’s the whole reason players work hard and prepare as hard as they do. The whole point is to eventually get called up the Bigs.

When other bloggers would write about these hypothetical (or sometimes real) scenarios where they would turn down a promotion, I would always argue back that it didn’t make any sense. How could you stay at your job after turning down a promotion? Wouldn’t that tell everyone you work with (and management) that you have no aspirations beyond your current job?

The whole idea is to see how far up the chain you’re going to make it.

Right?

That’s what I thought until I saw my baseball analogy in a different light.

Baseball Analogy, Part Deux

I think it happened while I was watching a Cubs game earlier this week and Lou Piniella waddled out to the mound to berate Neal Cotts. I had one of those moments: my eyes opened wide and I sat up straight.

What if getting promoted wasn’t like getting called up to the bigs? What if it was more like being being told, “Hey, congrats! You’re being promoted to the manager of the team. You start next week.”

I play baseball in a city league here in Chicago and I’ve been playing since I was seven years old. And I love playing baseball, but managing is something I’m not keen on at all. Playing is one thing—managing all the players and their expectations, playing time, and so on is a totally different ball game.

One that I have no interest in playing. That’s one promotion I have no problem saying “No thank you” to.

Balk

And I thought back to all the arguing I’d done about this and I realized how wrong I was. Now I understood why someone wouldn’t want to take a promotion—why take a job doing something that isn’t what you want to do?

I’ve heard of people in the advertising business that go through this: they’re copywriters or art directors and they love what they do. But they’re also really good at it, and eventually they become so good at it that they get promoted to Creative Director. Now they’re doing more managing and less ad creating, which seems like a similar jump from playing ball to managing a team—it’s not the same thing.

It’s not even close.

Mea Culpa

To all the bloggers I’ve argued with about this, I apologize. I now see the folly of my ways. And I’m curious to hear if anyone else out there feels this way. Would you want your boss’s job or not? Where do you draw the line between career advancement and doing what you love?

Photo by kevindooley

This post was included in the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights
This post was included in the Money Hacks Carnival

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