Unpopular Truths About Corporate Promotions | Generated by AI
Question: What are unpopular ideas about promotion in corporations?
Answer:
Several contrarian or unpopular views challenge the conventional wisdom that promotions in corporations are primarily merit-based rewards for hard work and performance. These ideas often highlight systemic flaws, unintended consequences, and alternative perspectives on career advancement:
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Promoting top performers leads to incompetence (The Peter Principle): Excellent individual contributors are frequently promoted into management roles where they lack the necessary skills, resulting in poor managers and organizational inefficiency. Instead, high performers should receive higher pay and resources to stay in their current roles rather than being pushed upward.
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Hard work and being good at your job do not entitle you to a promotion: Promotions involve entirely different skills (e.g., leadership, politics, people management) unrelated to excelling in your current position. Assuming otherwise leads to mismatched roles and failure.
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Promotions are often arbitrary, political, or biased: Decisions frequently depend on visibility, likability, self-promotion, “gut instinct,” or biases (e.g., favoring certain demographics) rather than objective performance. The best way to advance may be job-hopping to a new company rather than waiting internally.
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Many employees do not want promotions: A significant portion turn them down due to increased stress, responsibility, loss of work-life balance, or preference for expertise in their current role over management. Climbing the corporate ladder is seen as overrated or pointless for those prioritizing family, hobbies, or fulfillment outside work.
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Self-promoters and overconfident (often mediocre) individuals get promoted more: Those eager for advancement tend to lobby aggressively and appear narcissistic, yet they often underperform as managers compared to quieter, competent candidates.
These views suggest that corporate promotion systems reward politics and signaling over pure merit, and pursuing traditional advancement isn’t always desirable or effective.
References:
- r/unpopularopinion: People Who Are Good at Their Jobs Should Not Be Promoted
- r/unpopularopinion: You do not deserve a promotion just because you work hard and are good at your job
- The road to a promotion is often arbitrary
- The Truth About Promotions: Companies Are Terrible at Picking Managers
- Why Workers Are Choosing Not To Climb The Corporate Ladder
- The Top 10 Reasons Companies Fail at Promoting from Within