Climb the corporate ladder? No, thank you

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

Everyone wants to be promoted, right?

Wrong.

Megan Gatewood did the unthinkable. She chose to stay a marketing specialist at a Tennessee hospital system instead of going for the bigger job of marketing manager — even though her supervisors encouraged her to apply for the higher position.

The way she saw it, she had only been at Memphis-based Methodist Healthcare for a few months and wanted to learn the ropes before she took on more responsibilities and a staff. “I didn’t feel I was ready. I tend to be some what of a perfectionist and want to make sure I can do a good job,” she explains.

It wasn’t an easy decision. She wondered if her supervisors would think she was not ambitious, or if they would never consider her again for the manager ranks. And turning down an extra 10 percent in salary was also hard to swallow.

Maybe you're thinking Gatewood’s dilemma is not a bad one to have. Or you’re thinking she’s crazy for not doing everything she can to climb the ladder of success.

Well, believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there today who aren’t obsessed with making a mad dash to the top. Sometimes parents don’t want to ratchet up and take the extra hours or responsibilities that come with promotions. Perhaps they want time to take care of young children or ailing parents. Or they just love what they do or don’t think they can handle being a supervisor.

I talked to quite a few career experts and human resource managers about the issue, and they all said they’re seeing this phenomenon more and more. They also all conceded that, for the most part, employees who turn down promotions risk losing the respect of higher-ups.

But there is hope. Perceptions are beginning to change, and if you handle the situation just right, your decision not to advance may not doom your career.

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In the past, says career expert Roberta Chinsky Matuson, “It was unheard of not to accept a promotion even if it meant relocating your family. That would have been the end of your career.” But with all the focus on work-balance issues in recent years, she adds, employers are starting to realize “it’s OK for employees to be an individual contributor.”

If you’re penalized for not moving up, then the company might not be the best place for you.

So look closely at the history at your company. “If everyone left in individual contributor roles are those who upper management thinks don’t have potential, then chances are you don’t want to stay there long term,” says Dr. Robert Kelley, Adjunct Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business.

As the economy shifts to depend more on intellectual capital, companies are realizing some of their best talent is among the rank and file, Kelley says.

"Take someone who is good scientist, or researcher and has lots of ideas for new products. Now you put him into a management role and all of a sudden he’s being distracted by schedules, or Jane and Joe don’t like each other. He’s no longer coming up with new ideas.”

When you approach your boss with your decision not to take a move up (and you should definitely take time to think about it for your own sake, and to at least give your supervisors the perception that you took the offer seriously) you need to sell the idea of you staying put as a win-win for the company and you.

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