I recently got a promotion at work. I was going to write an article on how I did it and what you could do at work to get a promotion. But I thought about it and realized that that would probably be a pretty boring topic so I decided to write about something different. I am going to write about the things people can do to ensure they will not get promoted. Perhaps you don’t want to get promoted because you are pretty happy doing what you are doing now. Perhaps you like making less money. Or perhaps you want to get a promotion but are doing these things and don’t even realize it. Whatever the case may be, I decided to tell you all the things you can do to ensure you stay right where you are.
1. Don’t let anyone know you would like a promotion
Sounds pretty basic huh? But it is the #1 thing you can do to be sure you never ever get promoted. I have gotten several promotions in my life . I have asked for every single one. I know, you want your employer to fall all over themselves and give you the promotion you deserve. It is so obvious to yourself that you should get a promotion, why isn’t it obvious to your boss? Believe me, it isn’t. Here is one little secret. Promotions don’t often mean you are going to do anything different than what you currently do. Promotions are give to the stars at work. If you are a star, you most likely have already picked up the extra work you will have to do when you get a promotion (see #4 below). Why should an employer give you more money and a title bump when you will likely do the same amount of work you have always done? It may be the “right” thing to do but your job has an incentive to not give you a raise or a promotion. If they don’t know you are unhappy, they won’t do anything to fix it.
2. Let your work suffer because you are not getting a promotion
Your boss wants to give a promotion to someone who does excellent work and who is mature. Letting your work suffer in some sort of protests because a promotion is not coming or is taking longer than you want is sending the exact wrong message at the most crucial time. A very common attitude with people who are disgruntled after not getting a promotion is to show them “just how important I really am” by not dong the great work that you think should give you a promotion. Doing this doesn’t prove anything and pretty much will put you in the doghouse with your boss.
3. Dress provocatively/sloppily
You need to be taken seriously at work. One of the ways to ensure that will never be taken seriously at work is dressing too provocatively or dressing down. You want the higher position? Start looking like you already have it. It may not seem fair, how you look does not generally affect your work performance, but whoever said life was fair?
4. Keep doing your job
Here is one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about promotions. Just because you do your current job great does not mean you should get a promotion. Do you honestly think that writing great code is at all close to being able to manage people? Completely different skill set. So if you want to be sure to never get a promotion, just keep doing your job and never reach beyond that. Don’t show any initiative to take on things that are outside your job description. Do not volunteer to do extra work. Just keep kicking butt at whatever it is you are supposed to do and you will stay right there.
5. Don’t tell other people about the work that you do
Nobody is going to be a bigger promoter of you than you. It is important that you let others know of the good work that you do. This is not to say that you should constantly sing your own praises; nobody likes a braggart. But you also should not quietly go about doing your job. The thing is your boss, even if she works with you closely, does not know the full extent of everything that you do. Your promotion is going to have to be justified by more than just your boss. It makes your boss’ job much easier if he and others can easily recite your accomplishments. If you are not interested in a promotion, then just keep your accomplishments to yourself.
6. Do what you are told
Huh? How the heck can doing what you are told be a bad thing? The problem is if you ONLY do the things that are being asked of you. Part of being in management is dealing with ambiguity. You can’t be told what to do in certain circumstances because there is no plan to get there. If there was a ready-made road map for the business to follow everybody would follow it and there wouldn’t be any winners. So one of the things you are going to have to deal with is not being given explicit instructions on what to do. If you have never shown the ability or inclination to reach beyond the instructions of your boss, your boss won’t be able to trust you with the things that are the most important; these are the things that she can’t describe in exacting detail. So if you want to stay at your current level, juts keep doing what you are told. Better yet, when given an assignment that you can’t figure out, just complain about it. I guarantee you, you will look like you can’t get to the next level.
Great article. I am in management and cannot tell anyone how true this article is. My wife is trying for a promotion and I told her yesterday that she needs to be more tight lipped regarding her career endeavors. She got really upset when her boss told her she needs to stop putting in for promotions-a week after he told her how good she is.
It is not a management position she is after, but a personal banker position. She can sell ice cubes to an eskimo with just her personality, but the bank is afraid to lose her to someone else.
Do you have any suggestions I can give her? She has been in sales for years and has always been very successful. She just wants to move to something to where it will be worth putting kids in day care and something she will thrive at and help the company grow.
I appreciate any feedback.
Glenn Pickett
Glen,
Glad you are giving your wife some good advice. I agree with you. You need to ask for a promotion, but you need to not be a nag. To constantly ask for one is counterproductive. It actually makes your boss want to give you a promotion less.
I don’t know your wife’s exact situation but here is what I would tell someone at my work in similar situations.
1. Just because you want a job doesn’t mean there is a job for you to have. Promotions can only happen when there is a need at a company. Imagine if everyone just got promotions all the time for doing their job. You would end up with a 1000 VPs. I only need so many Senior Developers. Either the organization has to grow, or someone has to leave. That’s the sad truth. What I always tell my employees is that if the organization can’t support their need for promotions, I will always help them look elsewhere. In most cases, I tell people to wait until the company is about to post an open position in a job you want, and then apply for it. That way you know the company has a need.
2. The best way to get a promotion if you are really sure you deserve one? Go outside the company. Find your market value. If it is that obvious you deserve a promotion, you can make a 3rd party give you one easier than your current employer. Bring that new offer to your employer, and if they want to keep you, they will. You, as an employee, need to come with some leverage. If you have none, than why should your employer give you a promotion?
There is a very simple thing to help you to get that promotion at work and it is your attendance at work. People think that there boss does not notice when they stroll into work a couple minutes late each day. Some people think that it is ok since they live so far away.
4. Keep doing your job
This can be a bit of a double-edged sword too – I’ll tell you about my experience with this one. I thought the best way to prove yourself worthy of a promotion was performing at the new job description. I have been doing work way above my grade for over a year now, I have definitely taken my job to that higher level. I was denied a promotion because . . . my work would not change.
What do you think about that?
For all of the comments, there is some true data. But there is also data that is untrue. There are some things that none of you know what the hell your talking about. For instance, promotions are a fantasy. There nothing but a dream and not real. You may get a break for once in your life to advance. But that is only because favoritism, office politics or something. The truth is that you didn’t receive a promotion because of hard work or attendance. That was only true in the past. How do I know? Try over 10 years busting my butt. Try over 10 experience. Yet, even with the experience, attendance and work, do I get a break for once in my life? Of course not. Oh but sure its always some kid or even teenager that gets the break just because. Yet I know more and can do more. But do I get the break? No. For those in management, you have no idea. At least you were given a break for once in life. You don’t know what it is like to work your life and not once ever receive a break. For Adrian, oh boo hoo crybaby. Its only been a year. Try over 10 years and you don’t get a break. Everybody that thinks these aspects will get you a promotion has no idea what their talking about. I have had all these aspects all my life. Yet, I don’t get a break not once even though I am more qualified. Try being in my position. Then see what it is like. Life is a war. You have to fight for everything. Either you get a break or not. If you get a break then great. But you can do a better job and not get one.
I feel for Brad, above. It seems more and more often, I see people put into positions at my place of employment who are significantly under qualified. Meanwhile, people who have been busting their humps for years continue to be under employed and under paid. It is totally political. The latest person who was promoted is so incompetent that everyone is running behind her cleaning up the mess. Constant complaints about her keep coming in. Her assistants and underlings are leaving the company and swearing they’d rather be out of work than endure working for her again. Guess what? She’s just been given the new plum assignment! She happens to be close friends with a top person at the company. Coincidence? No.
It blows my mind that people believe promotions and pay raises are earned. That doing a good job, an exemplary job even, guarantees acknowledgment in pay and position. Being a reasonably good looking youngish white male with the kind of social skills that made one popular in High School is much more important than competence. At least that is the case at my company.
I can tell Brad this: if you are very good at your job and people perceive you as resenting the injustice of things, they will continue to treat you like garbage. Why? I don’t know why. I’ve just seen it happen over and over. I think they feel threatened. Like you can see past their bs. You need to find an ass to kiss and then pucker up. Continue doing the job and being a great employee, but somebody somewhere has to feel that it will benefit THEM to promote YOU. Otherwise they won’t take the time or trouble.
I got fed up with working for lazy idiots, too. And the above worked for me.
Sad to say, it is political. I have worked for a Fortune 50 company for over 10 years. When I moved into management, I was introduced to “the way things really work.” I was told, basically, it’s all political. You can have 10 identical employees making widgets. Each employee makes every widget the same way, in the same time, to the same quality. Everything about these 10 employees is completely identical in every way. According to the rules of the game here, corporate performance goals from the top down have to be met in order to fit into the overall business strategies. The mandate is handed down to me whereby I must rank the team according to performance and assign raises, bonuses, awards, etc. I can only have 1 “exceeds expectations”, 7 “meets” and 2 “does not meet”. How do you do something like that? How can you say that one is better than the other? Sometimes you are told who to assign a particular ranking. I’ll never forget that conversation with my manager because it was then that my eyes were opened and I remembered that even at my level, I was (and still am) only 1 of 10 making widgets.
Cynical? Yea… probably.
Realistic? Absolutely.
Bitter? No way! I have a family to support so I thank God I have a job.
The only thing that has changed is that my expectation level has been adjusted.