The corporate world is a competitive place, and when we climb that ladder — it can often seem like the ultimate career milestone. This is the most rewarding feeling and you have a huge exciting time ahead, it means all your hard work has paid off! But climbing the corporate ladder isn't just about fat paychecks and managerial titles. You will give up on some things in the course of that journey, let’s look at what you will lose.
Changing Relationships
The first thing that may change after a promotion is the relationships with your colleagues. You almost certainly had a wolf pack of colleagues in the same miserable holding pen you were. It was a place where you could joke around, vent about things that frustrated you and even bounce ideas off each other without hesitation.
However, if you get promoted – or, worse still, into management – those dynamic changes. All of a sudden, you are “the boss” and that friendliness between the two of you may start to wane. That can make conversations more formal or even guarded, as your prior peers might see you differently. Feeling like one of the guys/girls and suddenly you are no longer naturally a part of your tribe. Some of the people who were in your supporting community may no longer be, and that can be very disheartening.
Increased Pressure, Increase Stress
More responsibility accompanies a promotion and it leads most of the times to added pressure. Previously, you may have prioritized your work or projects. Instead, you now own the performance of an entire department or team. There is more on the line, so the pressure rises.
The content of your decisions becomes complex due to the fact they will reflect in the lives for more than just yourself. Your decisions affect the success of the organization and all those who work for you. People can become anxious because of feeling the need to always get things right. It takes a toll on your well being.
Time Trade-Offs
One other big change is in terms of the time you can spend. It generally takes more in higher positions. It can be a 24/7 responsibility where what was once known as a job turns into working from dawn to dusk. Long nights, early mornings and weekends soon start to become the norm.
This change can wreak havoc with your work-life balance. You might have to sacrifice time with family and friends or things you love doing for your hobbies. These newly added demands can drain you of the time and energy otherwise available to create a satisfying personal life.
The Perfectionism Trap
But the higher you go; there is often an invisible expectation of perfection. When working in roles of leadership, the act of being vulnerable or accepting responsibility for an error may seem like danger. Perfectionism: perfection is good, but when taken to the extreme leads all structure in a conflictive context-like you have always be perfect.
The pressure of chasing perfection can be draining. What it can also do, is make you more wary and less able to take risks due to a fear of failure. As time goes on, this can cause burnout because the consistent pressure to being "on" and always making the right choice gets old.
So, Is It Worth It?
As many benefits as promotions may come with, it is important to appreciate what you are potentially giving up. With success, inflow of money comes the change in relationships, increased pressure to do better and outperform self while expecting Inflows reach exponentially never matching up with it is so called work-life balance issue that experience gets diluted by perfectionism.
Accepted the promotion — consider whether or not this increased responsibility and sacrifice are in line with your greater goal and way of being. The benefits of a promotion may outweigh the negatives for some. Others may find it too expensive.
In the end, you have to think of it in those terms if you are going into taking a promotion as well. That way, you can decide which ones are most appropriate for your work.
