When A Promotion Doesn't Really Make One Happy

Strange title for a blog post as promotion in one's career is supposed to make one very very happy. Well the point is does one really feel happy on being promoted?

When one looks at the jobs in the government and public services sector then one may probably be really happy on getting a promotion.

This might be due to the reason that the roles and responsibilities in government and public services sector are generally very well defined and it can be said that as a general rule the responsibilities generally rise along with the role in the organizational hierarchy.

In private sector though this may not be the case and the question in this post is very pertinent, "does one feel happy on a promotion?".

In private sector organizations, hire and fire is far easier compared to that in government and public sector organizations. And similar is the case with promotions.

Handing someone a promotion at times has nothing to do with a real vacancy at the higher level or individual performance. There are many other factors that drive who gets promoted.

Some of the them are listed below:
  • Loyalty factor - since XYZ has completed "n" years with the organization she must be promoted now
  • Attrition factor - if we don't promote employee XYZ this year she may leave
  • Salary factor - XYZ is already getting a salary which is halfway through the salary range of the next level so there is no choice than to promote her otherwise by next increment her salary will reach the salary range of the level above next
  • Getting Acquired factor - since the company is about to get acquired by another some select few should be promoted to gain advantage in the post-acquisition organizational structure (this is generally done for the senior management positions and, at times, may backfire badly for the select few)
  • Acquirer factor - since the company is about to acquire another some select few should be promoted to gain advantage in the post-acquisition organizational structure (this is generally done for the senior management positions and, in case of acquirer, does offer good advantage to the select few)
  • Good boss factor - if a happy boss presents a strong case for promoting XYZ and persists in pushing it then the promotion will happen sooner than later
  • Management whims factor - the senior management thinks that someone should be promoted, just like that (the reasons would be clear to the senior management but not to the lesser mortals and that doesn't matter)
Interestingly in the case of many promotions no real advantage may come the way of the promoted other than compensation benefits . And if that is so, should one really be happy on a promotion?

After a few days of the promotion the novelty factor will die down and one would realize nothing has changed in terms of one's responsibilities and authorities. What will not change in any manner whatsoever would be the day-in and day-out activities one was doing before the promotion and after.

So, at times, a promotion may not necessarily be a promotion in the real sense. And this would be the situation "When A Promotion Doesn't Really Make One Happy".

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