Have you ever heard of someone doing the same job for 15 years and still not opting for a promotion?
That might sound strange in MNCs that believe in “perform or perish,” but in most government jobs in India, that’s fairly normal. Here, departmental promotions require applications, tests, and interviews.
Every time I opted out of promotions, my friends would invariably ask me to at least fill out the form and take the eligibility test. They’d say, “You can always perform badly in the interview and opt out deliberately.”
But ever since I joined my organisation about 15 years ago, one thing was always clear to me, That I didn’t want to get promoted.
Not because I didn’t want the perks and incentives that come with it, but because I wasn’t willing to pay the price: all-India transfers, longer working hours, and increased stress.
𝗔 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆, 𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀
For me, why even waste a Sunday morning going to the test centre?
I’ve always valued time freedom more than money freedom.
According to a recent McKinsey report, lack of adequate compensation is still the second-most common reason employees quit their jobs.
So, what’s the first?
It’s the lack of career development and advancement.
Promotions, in most organisations, act like dopamine hits; small rewards that keep employees hooked, giving them something to look forward to every year. This ritual motivates them to work harder and perform better, year after year.
However, the same career rise becomes meaningless when the work culture fails to provide real growth or job satisfaction. At some point, you must ask yourself; are you chasing growth, or just running on a treadmill that never stops?