I genuinely have never had any desire to move up to a management or a higher skilled position at a job I’ve had. I like interacting with the public, being on the same level as my coworkers, and find doing routine and mundane tasks peaceful. I do like a lot of variety in activity and changes to my routine and dealing with difficult or unexpected situations! And I like work environments where I get to learn a lot or face challenges.
The idea of sitting in an office, doing paperwork, being ‘in charge’, fills me with dread. It feels like I’d lose most of what I love about being at work. I don’t want to be responsible for people, projects or deadlines. I just want to come in, do my job well, and hopefully have a positive relationship with the people I work with.
I’ve been criticized a lot for my lack of ambition, and get funny looks from people when I mention that I had an opportunity for a better position but didn’t go for it. Aside from the very obvious reason (more money), I don’t know what’s so great about it. Does anyone else feel the same way?
Comments
I’m in a management position now, but I certainly don’t want my bosses job. So I’m cool where I am.
I’m a teacher. Five years ago I wanted to be a supervisor. I even got my license for it. Post-pandemic that role has changed so much and is so expendable that I have zero interest. And fuck anything higher than that.
I used to but I have lost my desire to go anywhere beyond manager at work in the future.
I have zero desire to be in management because I can’t stand the “game.”
“I need a report on why your sales are down and what five actions you’re going to take to increase them. They must be specific and measurable.”
“We’re sending you off on a seminar about Team Leadership vs. Management.”
“Everyone split into teams of five. Take one of these A1 sheets of paper and four of these colourful marker pens and write down five things that you commonly see in a great team and five things you see in a poor performing team.”
“I want you to spend half an hour one on one with each of your (minimum wage) team members and discuss how they can contribute to the success of the company. Have them make up a list of three things they can do and what actions they will take to implement them.”
“Why are your extended warranty sales not on target? I need your team to role-play selling extended warranties and how to overcome objections.”
“Sales people need to learn to Push Past the No!”
“I want you to listen in and observe their sales pitch and mark their performance green, amber, or red. They need to greet the customer as soon as they walk in the door. Start a non business conversation such as “How is your day going?” Then ask an open ended question like “What are you looking for today?” NOT “Can I help you?” Don’t give the customer an opportunity to say no. The salesperson must offer extended warranties and mention at least one feature and one benefit. If the customer says no, did the salesperson overcome the objections?
There is no way in hell I am doing that shit.
Everyone can’t be the boss. Someone has to actually do work.
I’m in a senior role now and have no desire to move up any higher. Next step up for me would be CAO or COO and I just have no interest in taking on that level of stress and responsibility. I make good money where I’m at now while still being able to “switch off” and live my actual life. I’m content with that.
I’m extremely ambitious but my goal is not to ascend higher up the totempoll, it’s to become the most highly skilled professional I can be so I get more expensive (and autonomous) over time. I’m also not limited to any particular industry, which helps.
We all get different things out of work. It’s totally okay if yours is just a pay cheque.
I have zero ambition to move up in my career.
If my boss offered me a higher position or even partner, I’d jump on it. I’ve been here for almost 2 months, and I used to be the top guy and would like to return to that role at the new company
I hate the “love the grind” mindset. Just let me do my thing and earn enough to live.
Yes. I’m about as high as I want to be. Anything else would be more work than I ever want to be doing. And I certainly dont want to be anyone’s boss.
Literally was forced to be a supervisor at my current job. Well, not forced but pressured until I said yes. I knew things would get worse after that and sure enough they did. It’s just a title with more work. I hate having extra responsibilities at work because I’m only doing it because our dumbass society still makes everyone work for basic needs like shelter and food.
I’m not a natural leader. More like a go-with-the-flow kind of person. I don’t want to be anyone’s boss, I don’t want extra stress or pressure added to my job. I just want to go to work, make a decent living, and go home.
Totally get it.
I’m an electrician and love working with the tools. Being a manager sounds like soul death to me.
I tried working in the office as a PM for a while but it was so depressing.
I’m happy just typing away alone in my office for the rest of my life .. got my snacks and podcasts. No customers. I do good work and get left alone, it’s wonderful and peaceful
I’ve oscillated back and forth over this issue. I had some bad experiences in a leadership position in my twenties, and shied away from it for a long time. Last year, I had a promotion to manager sprung on me, and I decided to try it again despite my misgivings.
I had been quietly overachieving as a sr. Developer beforehand, and was enjoying the autonomy I was given and the mentoring I could offer other devs on my team. It was the opportunity to have more autonomy that appealed the most.
The first few months were very difficult, and I’m still having to work harder than I was before, but I’m finding it very rewarding to help grow careers for my team and provide actually meaningful and interesting work for them.
I do still sometimes wish i could just be an IC quietly left to do my own thing, but I then quickly get reminded that I really don’t like being told what to do anymore. Give me a business problem that needs to be solved and give me free rein to figure out how to solve it, delegating work as i see fit, and I’m happy. But I no longer like having specific work delegated to me.
I do honestly envy people who remain content with their job indefinitely. As soon as I know how to do something, doing it myself becomes boring, and so I try to automate it. I find it really hard to do work I find boring. That has led me to miserable dead ends in other jobs in the past, so I’ve learned that one solution is just to keep riding the wave of getting new interesting problems to solve, even if it means accruing a lot of less than ideal responsibilities like managing JIRA boards or scheduling 3 different kinds of growth coaching session with 3 different forms to fill in for each direct report each quarter. Sigh.
Same!
Both my mother and older sister have always been in pretty high positions as they’re both very ambitious and on that grind.
I’ve seen firsthand from a young age how awful it is to be high up the corporate ladder, and especially how awful those higher ups often are. Even though I could probably be a good manager, I don’t think I could bring myself to interact with a lot of them without telling them to go fuck themselves.
Also half the time the pay rise from regular worker to manager isn’t worth it for the new responsibilities you take on.
I owned a business in my early 30’s. I had good employees, but I learned I was not a good leader or salesman. Needless to say, my business failed. She nice then I’ve focused on being task oriented. Give me a job, a project, whatever, I’ll get it done. I will not take on overseeing other people. It’s limited my income and career, but doing so has kept me closer to sane.
MEEEEEE. I like driving stuff. I’ve driven 65 million dollar airplanes and 35 dollar county water trucks. No desire to ever manage/move up.
I see what middle management has to suffer through both from on high and from us peons down below. I’m fine being a peon until the upper management leaves or dies. I probably won’t be around long enough to see that, though. This place is the most toxic I’ve ever worked.
You’re definitely not alone in feeling this way. There’s a lot of societal pressure to climb the ladder and pursue promotions. but that’s not the path for everyone and that’s totally okay. In fact a lot of people find fulfillment in doing meaning, steady work without the stress something new obligation an as Uncle Ben said With great power comes great Responsibility.
I have absolutely none right now. Burnt out from other jobs. I’ve landed in a nice spot. The future might be different but right now I want to coast.
It’s quite tricky. If you are not applying for higher position, you still stuck with the same salary.
But if you took leadership position, you get higher salary and bigger responsibilities.
Except some jobs where you can earn high salary but you don’t need to manage people
Me. I became a manager (6 person team) 10 years ago, and I hated it. Had to deal with people’s shit from below and above. Had someone from my team constantly trying to step over me, and my director tried to use me as a scapegoat for shit they messed up. I got paid more, but had such work overload that I didn’t have time to spend or enjoy it. I’m 42 now and work freelance on my own, no bosses or co-workers.
Me. I had managers convince me to apply for a better position and now that I have it, I regret it. I am constantly stressed and have to interact with people that annoy me. I just want to go back to my mindless activities and go home when I’m done.
yes, I have no desire to climb to corporate ladder to a managerial position.
At my job the next level up is switch from hourly to salary which they’ll be expecting me to do at least the same amount of overtime as currently but without the extra pay. Oh and they don’t tell you what the salary would be until you accept the promotion. Add in being in charge of several employees, and dealing with their problems as well as mine, no thanks.
Being a manager means dealing with everyone else’s problems as well as your own.
In my experience, you’re just a puppet for your own manager. Doing what they instruct you to do, whilst having to make it appear if it’s your idea, and having to support and promote ideas and rules that you don’t agree with and are often opposed to.
And when you do well, your manager gets most of the credit. When things go badly, you get all of the blame.
The only thing I enjoyed about being a manager was when it helps people, they get promoted, or you help them improve in some way. That’s really gratifying. But it’s the only part that is.
I think you are wise!