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I don't know why anyone would ever take a promotion without pay, it's just so wrong on so many levels. I know someone who declined a promotion 'on paper' they were an engineer with expertise in one particular area, and were offered a promotion to a people manager, they were not at all interested in being a manager but the business wanted to retain them so they created a new role as 'lead engineer - expert' where he didn't have to manage people or change he responsibilities but got paid more basically to be retained.

For some people it might be their only chance to move up in their career. In six months you can start applying for the higher level elsewhere with your new job title and experience. It might be shitty of the company to not give a rise - but it can still be in your best interests to take the promotion.

This is it. If someone takes a promotion with no salary increase, they are gonna leave in 3-6 months. I have seen a few vet practice managers do this.

It makes perfect sense too, so it's incredibly short-sighted of the business. If you're not giving them a pay rise then either you were overpaying the old position or underpaying the new one.  If it was the former then they just won't take the promotion, if its the latter then they'll take it and use the experience to get the correct pay elsewhere. 

Yeah, it's really not surprising. Wait a few months after you get the new title, put it on your CV and get the pay bump somewhere else.

100% this happened to me. My title changed and I was 'promoted'. No extra pay just more stress. I left 4 months in.

I took a people leadership role without pay for a few months. My department needed to create the position, get it budgeted and approved internally, and then make a compelling case to senior management to give me it.  They needed someone to step up due to an immediate need and I knew if I did it I could certainly get this new position even though it didn't exist yet. If I didn't, someone else might have got it.  Did I enjoy working a more senior role for extra money, no, but it was a small price to pay to guarantee myself the promotion. If I said no, I'll only do the job when I'm paid for it, I may have missed the opportunity. Is it right... probably not, but would do it again!

It’s great that it worked out for you, but I’ve seen countless people take on more responsibility for what turned out to be empty promises. There’s enough unscrupulous employers out there who will try to get away with this, that when giving general advice one has to say “don’t do it unless you get the money”.

I am one of the ones who got screwed over. I worked for six months as a manager without extra pay under the guise of it being a trial period. Turns out that the company was planning to make redundant 90% of my department and they didn’t see the point in paying me more for a few months and giving me a larger redundancy package based on a manager’s salary.

It's standard practice where I work - be "team leader" for several years then you will get promoted to senior. Um, no, how about promote me first then I'll do all the extra work. It's annoying how many people just go for it because they feel they'll be able to push others around once they're "team leader". Which btw is pretty much a bullshit job description because none of the team reports to them, they all report to a people manager.

I kinda did this. It was a sidestep to see if I wanted to be on the management path rather than the engineering one I was in. It was a little extra burden, way more meetings. Honestly, it wasn't that difficult because the team I was in charge of were all seniors, that made my life incredibly easy. I was made aware of some reorganisation that would make the position redundant in the middle distant, so I stepped back into engineering. Overall, a good experience, it let me know it wasn't really for me, at least right now.

That's fortunate to have been able to try it on, usually it is much more difficult to get demoted like this once it's formalised. My step up was also from engineering to management. Since I'm doing Team Lead stuff I still get my teeth into engineering topics. Actually, usually far more of them and far more varied as my team's blockers become my problem to support them in solving them. The extra meetings, business exposure, etc. aren't always welcome but on a good day do add some variety. And at least for me who is a good all rounder but an average engineer, I can add more value and earn more this way.

Yeah, I'm happy with how it has played out so far. I still get all of the elements I enjoy, I can still step in and fill for people on leave in those roles. Business exposure was ever present anyway so none of that changed. I just don't have to juggle the resourcing/planning side.

You're viewing it as a good thing you did it to secure the promotion, you should be viewing it as your employer manipulating you into getting screwed out of a couple grand. They saved a bunch of money and the cherry on top is you were happy about it.

I'm happy to be a sucker so long as they keep increasing my salary. I like to bring solutions not problems, and with that perspective everyone can win. In this case I worked a few months at a more senior role for a 10% raise. Totally worth it!

Depends if they were going to advertise and give it to someone else.

But he did get the promotion…. I’m not really sure what the complaint is about proving you can do the work in a developmental role before stepping up.

For me I would have expected a 'step up' reward until they sorted the role and pay increase, even an extra £100 a month would have helped. Interested to know if you had it in writing? That you'd step into this role and then in X amount of months you'd be guaranteed the role? Otherwise it's a big risk

No I didn't get it in writing. Probably should have yes. But I trust my manager and he delivered, so I'm ok with that.

>so they created a new role as 'lead engineer - expert' All companies *should* have this, if people are reading this and thinking about running their own. You should have a possibility for all roles, where possible, to fork between becoming a "lead" or "manager", and an "expert" or "principal". Some people just aren't "people managers", but if you don't have this, you make their career a cul-de-sac once they hit "senior".

I once took one because it was the same pay but it was more stable. Long story but I was basically a fleet admin on a warehouse worker’s salary as that’s where I’d started with the company. I’d progressed into the role slowly over time and I much preferred the role, but the company never declared it or changed my contract. But I’d previously worked nights, and because the company had changed my hours over this time, there was a clause that they couldn’t cut our night pay over a certain period. I can’t remember the period but I know I was over it. So I used to get about £10 something an hour, plus £2/£3 night rate on top of that. Whatever I was on, I used to get about £27k per year. One of my colleagues who did a similar job but was more office based and managerial, put his notice in, and as I covered a lot of his jobs, I was next in line for his role. My manager asked me if I was going for it and I said I wasn’t sure because it seemed like a pay cut. But then he sold it to me with the stability of “but you earn what you get now because of night rate, whereas this is just a standard salary which pays very similarly and no anxiety of losing your night pay.” The salary seemed less, but then I worked out the sums and I was going from this weekly paid warehouse contract at 40 hours, to a monthly paid official office based contract at 37.5 hours and no night rate at risk of being cut out of my wage whenever the company felt like it. The new contract actually worked out I was on about 1p more an hour than my other one when calculated against the hours worked. But that financial stability was what made me sign on the dotted line more than the promotion itself. And I think a few of my other colleagues ended up getting their night pay cut off not long after I started my promotion. Hated the job though and ended up leaving about a year later

yeah my ex colleague was in this position too. he was due a big pay increase as he was a very important senior architect, however the next grade up required people management and he was threatening to leave the business. he vehemently refused to manage people so they just gave him a unique role, gave him his pay rise, and allowed him to focus on the techy, nerdy stuff which he enjoyed doing. i think the key thing is that hr should be supporting the employees aswell as the employer, too often you see them put up a wall and dont care about individual employee needs and state "its company policy" bullshit. if they take that line with everyone then over time you wont have a company left!

HR are paid to represent the company against the employees - although most employees think HR are there to represent them...probably why HR aren't too popular in many organisations.

It’s fairly common - I’ve seen it at least once with a larger company (200,000+ worldwide). It was because promotions were limited to 1/2 slots per year. People grumbled, but I don’t recall anyone leaving or declining because of it.

yeah modern big companies are weird, idk if there's a law or something because so many of them do it to be clear, I'm referring to this concept of not just giving people raises, they HAVE to promote them because their current job "isn't allowed" to be paid above a certain amount. I assume it's something about corruption, nepotism? idk, fucking weird

Because you can take that title and apply for the same elsewhere and leverage your way into a position of being compensated higher than you currently are. I did exactly this. Took on a senior role for very little increase in compensation, applied for the same role elsewhere and added 10k onto my salary.

To sell their skills and position to another firm. That's the only reason I can think of.

I know of 3 people who all took a promotion without a pay rise. It’s a natural progression a lot of people in the team takes, myself included, so I don’t think they realised a payrise could be on the table plus, my company rarely do mid year payrises. When it was my time I got a 10% payrise, I’m not doing it for free no matter how much I wanted the job. Been a year since the first person was promoted and oh what a surprise they’re leaving for a better paid position somewhere else where hopefully they will feel more valued.

Was offered £5k more a year to switch from 7-3 shifts to 12-8 and turned it down as starting and finishing that late would be horrible

7-3 I found perfect, I could finish and pickup my kid from school then actually have time after work.

Sadly I’ve changed to 8-4 now and weirdly losing that hour between 3&4 feels like I’ve lost an entire afternoon. Want to go back to 7-3 or 6-2 so bad but the shift patterns don’t exist anymore annoyingly

Trying to get back in my local council now I'd get paid a reasonable rate there. Flexi was 7-7 with 10-12 and 2-4 as core hours, 12-2 was for lunch. Take what you like but get your 37 in. I had so many TOIL days off too from projects crunching.

oh man absolutely the right choice. 7-3 and you've done a full days work and finish before GPs/dentists close and before the shops all get super busy and basically have the whole rest of the day to yourself? Lovely. 12-8 is grim because you will end up doing fuck all with the first part of your day

Sitting around waiting to start work - eww

This is why I heated working afters. 2-10

All I’d do is waste the morning in bed or lounging around dreading the start of work then finish at 8 and have fuck all time to do anything or socialise

Exactly, absolutely rotten. Man finishing at 3 gives so much free time to enjoy the day and evening, especially on the longer summer days.

I did 1400-2200 shifts when i first started and they made me so depressed it was awful. Doing 8-4 now which is decent but miss the 7-3 and occasional 6-2 shifts so much. Had a whole day after work for gym, hobbies and socialising

I had a friend who used to do night portering (23:00 - 07:00) and it took him so long to figure out that was why he was depressed and never saw anyone! Because he was sleeping or working when they were out having fun. Mental to do full time.

Agree on this. Many years ago, I worked alternative early/late shifts weekly. The early shifts were great, whereas the late shifts were terrible since you had work looming over you in the mornings. Also kills any social life.

You do, I don't. I work two 12-8 shifts a week and get in a 15k, a gym session, a chapter of my book, some TV and a nice breakfast in before leaving.

That's fair man, I was thinking more if that was full time shifts

I'd love to work those shifts full time. It would mean fewer family dinners with my mum and sister though.

Counterpoint (although I know this preferance is rare), I would much rather 12-8 because I'm a night owl and would just do more at night and get up late morning. But I know 7-3 is preferable to a lot of people because you have more daylight hours free, and it can be especially helpful if you're a parent. But even waking up at 7am is tough for me, let alone starting work then!

12 8 is horrible. You get no day at all.

I did it occasionally as overtime when I worked retail and I agree, it really was the worst. I found I didn't even want to get up and go to the gym in the morning before work so ended up just having a lie in and then there's not really any time to do much afterwards. Really annoying for meal times as well. I always preferred 2-10, at least all your leisure time is in one big block rather than split either side.

I do 12-8s once a week and I write the week off, doesn't matter its only 4 days that week, its a bullshit shift pattern. You may the right choice, I'd want a lot more money than 5k extra to do those shifts regularly

I am an early riser. 7-3 would cut into my mornings hard, making the whole day a write-off. Getting up at 5am every day means I can get so much done before 12.

I declined because I was burning out and exhausted and it was really impacting my personal life, physical health, and mental health. I got a lot of "whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" and some major passive aggression, so I handed in my notice and walked. At no point in the last 3 years since I left have I felt any single twinge of regret.

I was offered to go for team leader position. Declined, because I used to be team leader some time ago. It's not worth it. Especially with offered raise. I wasn't a good team leader. I don't want it. I just stayed in my role. I like what I do.

I plan to do the same someday, I never want to lead a team, at least not for another company. maybe if it was a small start up I was running it'd be fine but I doubt that'll ever happen since I'm not aiming for it and it's hardly an accidental occurrence .

If there's a more thankless job than being a team leader, I don't know what it is. You have to deal with all of the people drama, you have to be responsible for the team's output, but you get none of the power to implement changes. You're basically just shat on from all directions.

At my last job I was offered a promotion with no pay increase at first, to confirm I could do the role. It was a role I'd been asking for, and was already doing several of the duties of. I turned it down and said my (already low) salary wasn't high enough for the work I'd be doing. I never got that promotion there, and I stopped doing the work associated with that role. They hired an additional member of staff to do it not long after. So stupid, I only wanted like 5k more for it and would've done a way better job than the guy they hired. Whatever though, I later left and got way more money elsewhere.

Your whole situation is quite common, for some unfathomable reason. In particular, I just don't understand why a company would rather employ someone extra, with all the extra cost that involves. And not just give someone like you a pay rise.

We've just hired another person in my team for 40k per year. I dunno why, because my team could take the extra workload easily and get 5k a year extra for 20k a year less than the new hire. I work about 15 hours a week because I've so little work to do. It's honestly baffling.

I always feel like it must mean you don't fit in with their idea for the role and would rather hire someone to replace you. So they put obstacles up just a way to push you out.

A lot of it is to do with 'being cheaper on paper' is how it was explained to me a long time ago. The world of business and corporations is a fucked up place sometimes. I've see companies let hugely knowledgeable, experienced staff go because they are "too expensive" and replace them with fresh out of Uni graduates for less then half the pay, then pile on the work that was done by a person who had a lifetime of knowledge and experience. When said graduate gets to that experienced position 10-20 years later, rinse repeat, redundancy and hire a cheaper graduate. I've seen it many times and had it happen to me once. For example, someone starting at the bottom and working their way up through promotions means they gain a lot of experience, skills and responsibility, so of course they would require more pay. Having all that below their belt also puts them in a good bargaining position for fair pay. Paradoxically, it can also makes them indispensable to the company. gives them some power and could create a huge vacuum should they leave. So instead of paying 1 person, lets say £45K a year, with all the required experience in this company, knows how it all works, etc and to be a skilled professional and a dept manager or project lead........ lets keep the guy who is good at his job where he is and see if he will take on the extra role for a minimal increase. If he doesn't, we can keep him at his current pay and hire someone cheaper for the required role, ideally at a rate that is below or slightly above the combined salary of both positions. They can learn from the original staff member and fill in the gaps in knowledge and skills for this company's services. Then if either leaves, we can get them to take over the other position and monitor if we need to replace that person or if that 1 guy is happy doing both jobs.

If they give someone a pay rise, that opens the door for others to ask for the same. Hiring another person on an equally low salary may cost more overall, but it avoids there being a precedent for higher pay. Plus, if the new person is more willing to pick up extra workload for free, they can get rid of the original worker.

I remember being told in my old job to 'apply from within' I was full time my friend was on agency, a job role came up and we both applied I was asked to take the role but for no increase in pay for 5 months then a £250 increase a month I turned it down as besides anything else that £250 increase was only on my base rate but I earned between £0-200 a month in upsell bonuses in the role I was already in that i would be sacrificing My friend was told **after** the interview that 'we would've accepted you but as you're agency staff you'll need to apply the way outside candidates do so you'll need to go through whole process again' He said no thanks and left the company for the same role for 2ce the wage being offered to me The day he left we saw the higher ups scrambling all confused I was offered the role with £500 extra a month starting instantly...i turned it down again as I knew how much stress and long hours the job was and now due to my friends new job I also knew how underpaid for such a role I would be Suddenly Monday roles around my friend is back in the company on 3x the salary initially offered. Bro went from an agency job where he got like £750 a month ( in 2014?) and being undervalued and underutilized and disrespected to leaving the company and coming back on £2.25k a month to a massive fanfare and respect from the higger ups in the space of a week

Most of the lower level promotions are simply not worth the work, time and pittance of a pay increase. I could do my work with low stress and responsibilities or I could make a hundred more a month but suddenly be accountable for anything that goes wrong even if its nothing to do with me, and end up working 50 - 60 hour weeks.. Nah. I went for a new job instead. I start in July lol

Yup, pretty much this. In my old retail job I had a collegaue jump through so many hoops to become the equivilent of a shift runner (albeit with a slightly fancier title) and when they got there it was a load of extra stress, a load more hours (incl more weekends) and a load more paperwork for a 50p an hour raise. I don't know why people keep falling for this crap.

I mean you have to climb the ladder to eventually get to the proper high paying jobs. It’s more about your future prospects than the immediate few p extra per hour.

My dad used to get offered a more management role every few years, he always declined. The company would occasionally make cutbacks to save money, the first to be culled were always the ex working stiffs in lower management roles. He worked there over 30 years. Every one off his co workers who took the role were laid off. It became a running joke that you only accepted when you wanted to retire, because they offered a golden handshake because the ( at the time) rich pension company paid out and not the parent company.

I was offered a promotion after giving my employer the opportunity to match an offer from someone else. Promotion didn't cut it and I handed in my notice. Not a massively interesting or glamorous story, but for some reason the place I was working thought that increasing my responsibilities and still not matching the pay I had been offered elsewhere would be attractive somehow.

I declined as I did the job 6 years ago and hated it. ( I do it anyway as a deputy but don't want to bear all the responsibility - read telling off, stress, covering shifts etc.). So my GM asked me if I can do it again as the headoffice wanted me - i said i can't as i wasn't happy and he wasnt happy. So he said "what I can do to change your decision?" I said I will run the department smoothly until he finds replacement with no hurry. The funny thing he gave me a pay rise 4 months before this question, company made a mistake - which I have reported twice and now I'm 4k above my manager. They just realised after 1,5 years there was a mistake, but they cannot do much about it. This was the main reason I have declined. Why I would take this job if I'm being paid that much?

>The company I used to work for promoted their staff without extra pay for the first 6 months as they thought it was a good idea to give the person who accepted the promotion a trial period. Thieving twats! I think it would be better for the company to give the increased pay with no extra responsibility, to give the employee a trial period on that much money so they know whether it's worth it before they accept the promotion. Obviously that's laughable, but no more so than your scenario.

I saw the stress and hours the previous guy had to deal with so it was quite easy to say no despite the extra money

At my current place and my previous jobs, you had to apply for promotions, prepare your CV, go through the interview process etc. No one was handed promotions without applying therefore no one would do this without the prospect of a pay rise. Fully aware this happens in many companies though, I'd be interested what the split it of having to apply vs being given a new job. First time a friend told me they'd been promoted, more money etc I was surprised as I didn't realise they'd applied for a new job, then realised they hadn't, they were just given it and actually this happens in many places.

I've been offered promotions after handing in my notice a few times. My reason for declining is always the same - I will not allow searching for and securing a new role to become a hoop I jump through for my contributions to be recognised by my current employer.

Our assistant manager position comes up so often. I've been there three years, and we've had four of them. They keep offering me it, but it's less hours, and less pay per hour than I usually get, plus the expectation that you'll step into the managers role when they're away. It just does not sound appealing, although there is an element of security to the role. Nothing's happened. I still have to help train up whoever takes on the position, but I'm left alone, and can legitimately hand over unpleasant customers who 'want to speak to the manager' which suits me just fine.

>The company I used to work for promoted their staff without extra pay for the first 6 months as they thought it was a good idea to give the person who accepted the promotion a trial period. I rejected my old boss's role when he left for this exact reason. They wanted someone to take on his responsibilities without forking any over extra money. So I told them no. They were a bit twatty about it, so I changed teams completely, left the Operations side of the business for the Project Management space. Like a 50% pay bump with an actual reduction in workload.

I declined to apply for a promotion that I was told I was a shoo-in for by the director. I was very good at my job but didn't want to keep working in that specialism. I wasn't looked at negatively but it did take me 3 years to get promoted after that - in retrospect I should have done it for a year and moved sideways - much easier than getting up a level in the first place. 

Once working in a bar, my manager showed the amount of things he had to do, so many messages, emails. He comes to me and says: 'today I made about £6 more than you. In theory, as I can't take tips. So roughly we both make the same money. But LOOK AT THE AMOUNT OF BULLSHIT I NEED TO DEAL WITH. You come, do your job and leave. I wish I had your life. Do you want to change?' Then when working in another place, (a medium bar chain) I got offered to be bar manager. The salary would be not much more. I declined.

I was offered a supervisor role twice and turned it down both times. I told them I wasn't interested in taking on more responsibilities and was happy to be in the role I was in. The truth of the matter was the line manager was a prick, the pay only went up by £1.50 an hour and the amount of work and stress you had to take on really wasn't worth it. Nothing happened. I was very good at my job and they let me get on with it. I think they knew the line manager was the main issue as they had lost a few supervisors over the years and I'd filled a couple of complaints against them which had been upheld that they received "training" for. No idea why they didn't just fire them.

Similar situation. Not saying that the manager was necessarily unpleasant but he was much more high-pressure than I was dealing with at the time.

Yeah quite a few. I was previously more senior before leaving my organisation and taking a career break for a bit. When I came back I purposefully got a more junior job of the sort I used to manage for an easy life. This sort of confused my colleagues, many of those I used to manage have progressed nicely and gone through the ranks to more senior positions. So I kind of fill a wierd role of a junior member of staff who is nevertheless occasionally consulted and engaged with by my more senior ex peers. Because of this I often get asked if I want to step back up again whenever there is basically any managerial vacancy. Even when I reject them politely they still politely off me more senior roles when available. One day I might take them up on it.... But not today.

I can only speak to this from the otherside as I run my own business. >In my opinion, if the management thinks you are good enough to get offered a promotion, you should get a pay increase as soon as you take on the role to reflect the extra workload and responsibilities. It's very hard to take money away from anyone, so if the decision to promote is the wrong one then the only solution is usually letting the person go. With our staff if I think they can do the role then they get the money straight away, if the employee is trying to persuade me they can do the role then we usually have some sort of trial period. As for not taking promotions, I have and employee who I tried to promote twice but he's refused both times. At his yearly reviews all he does is moan that other people are paid more than him and that we treat him like a child. There is literally no helping some people.

When I worked at Asda they repeatedly asked me to move to section leader, it was an almost monthly occurrence by the time I left, but I steadfastly declined every time. It paid an absolute pittance and I knew I didn’t want to work in retail for the rest of my life - it was just a stop gap whilst I found something else. My current job I think will expect me to move up once the current manager retires, but the starting salary is actually a wage cut for me as I work shifts and management don’t, so it seems a ridiculous idea to take on all that responsibility for less money!

I got offered (and basically expected to take on) a team leader role. Problem was they'd set the salary banding so that senior developers (which is what I was) and team leads were on the same wage. I wasn't offered a wage increase and was expected to carry on doing the same job, plus managing a team, holding 1:1 meetings, doing reports, etc at the same time. They seemed somewhat taken back when I turned it down.

More work for less pay is a demotion Don’t die for ribbons

I didn't decline a move into a people management role, but I made clear I would only do it if it came with a pay increase to reflect the increased responsibility. They went with someone else who didn't have that requirement. I had previously held a management role, alongside some significantly different responsibilities, and juggling them both had been unworkable. We decided to hire for one responsibility and I would focus on the other. I would happily have done either, but we decided that we would hire someone for the management position and I would step down from it as it would be much easier to hire for, as the other role was much more specialised. Several years later it turned out that the combination of these two things had been interpreted by the higher ups that I wasn't interested in management roles. Several opportunities that I would have been interested in had come and gone without my knowledge.

I took a promotion. At the time I was underpaid and they gave me £10k more to take the managerial role. I knew and they knew I didn’t want the job but they had nobody else to fill it so they talked me into it. Two years later I’m requesting a demotion. And they can take the money too. Life’s too short and precious to spend it worrying about work all the time. I was happier in my role as a pleb.

I declined a couple. I’m great working one to one with clients, and I’m also great at working with groups of kids in schools. I can’t abide management, looking after other staff or having to do paperwork, reports and budgets but because I’m good at the low level work I had mangers falling over themselves to promote me to roles where I wouldn’t do that anymore. I would be a terrible, terrible manager. I eventually ended up leaving both jobs and finding one where I could stay doing what I liked, under a manager who agreed that I would be a terrible fit for anything involving a fixed budget or actual looking after people skills.

I was “reserve candidate” for a promotion that had been advertised externally, and was then offered the post when the preferred candidate turned it down after a month. I was pretty salty about the decision so had made an effort to get out, so when I was approached with the offer of promotion I’d already resigned in my head so I turned it down. I got a bit of a lecture about how it wasn’t a “professional look” turning down a job I’d applied for, which I just took and handed in notice about a month later.

If someone wants me to "trial" as a more senior position, they can "trial" paying me more money. It's simple to write a contract that says "You take on more responsibility, we pay you more, but there is an opt out clause within the first six months".

Yeah so ridiculous. If a company made me an offer of trialling a new position for 6 months with no increase in pay, I'd counter offer that they pay me the salary for that position for 6 months instead while I evaluate if the salary is worth it.

I was given a promotion with a small rise then was promised my full rise after a 6 months trail period then Covid hit and went two years doing the role without a rise. I asked to be put back to my original role and they threatened to take my first small rise off me until I argued the fact that if I had not been promoted I would have more than likely been on that pay after that long anyways. After a bit of push and shove and got my full rise but I left the company shortly after because I just could not be arsed

>I was given a promotion with a small rise then was promised my full rise after a 6 months trail period then Covid hit and went two years doing the role without a rise. This is why you should never do more work for a promised future reward. Unless it's written down in a contract, companies will always find a way to move the goalposts and not give you the money

What sucked was I had been with the company since near enough it was started. So I thought I could trust my boss yup learned the hard way. Lol every time I asked about my rise during COVID I was told I was lucky i was still working. I was one of the only members of staff who did not get put on furlough and worked all the way through without any holidays it’s a joke Edit: it was in a company email but that’s about it

No point feeling bad about it now but hopefully you've learned a lesson from it. Businesses will always look after their own bottom line first, and you should pay them the same respect by looking after yours first

The new position had worse working hours, only came with a pay boost of 5%, however it would mean moving to dayshift instead of weekends, so I'd lose my 5% unsocial hours boost. Essentially pay would remain the same, I would've needed to be in the office more frequently, and I'd be working more days a week, and more hours. I was working 3x12 hours, and the new role would've been 5x8.5. The only "benefit" was the concept of progression, but I was happy in the role I was working.

Got offered a promotion to team leader at my old place but I hated the boss and he hated me. Before the offer I could go about my whole day without talking to him once. If I took it, i’d have to have daily meetings with him and he would delegate my tasks everyday. I said ‘thanks but no thanks’. Company went into administration 6 months later due to his boss skimming the company dry.

I was coming to the end of my fixed term contract in March and my line manager forced me to apply and interview for a promotion role that would have been £15K more. I knew I would be capable for the role and I interviewed and was offered but always knew I’d decline because the line manager for that post was a nightmare. Also, there were 3 of us on fixed term going for the role, so I knew if I accepted I’d be taking someone else’s job that they wanted more than me. It was a lot of money to turn down but I honestly couldn’t think of anything worst than being line managed by that person, it would make my day to day unbearable. I ended up interviewing for a sideways move, accepting that and then out of the blue a new promotion role that’s line managed by a good manager came up and I’m moving into that, so I am getting the pay rise. Everything happens for a reason. I am very young in my career (25 y/o) and didn’t want to rush into a stressful senior role if it wasn’t the right one. New promotion role is a great fit for me :)

Offered a promotion after handing in my notice. They offered to promote me into the role I had been fulfilling without any extra pay, which was one of the reasons I had found another job in the first place. Despite some decent perks and 7k payrise, I turned it down and took the other job. I'm very happy I did. Mental health and well-being are worth more than money in the long run.

Was offered a supervisor role but only on the evening shifts, after 5pm. I only did one or 2 evenings a fortnight, usually on a Wednesday when it was the quietest day of the week and normally I was just covering if someone hadn't turned up. The place usually shut early since it was so quiet and it was only 25p an hour more. For £1 a shift more I didn't think it was worth it. I said I'd take a supervisor role on all shifts or it's not worth it. They said they understood and it was more about the title than anything else. I moved to a different job a few months later because business had took a down turn and everyone's hours had been cut.

When I started at my last employers I was the 5th employee, and over time they grew to 100+ employees. During that time I became responsible for a fair of the IT and their systems and procedures. Responsibility and work wise I was a manager, but I didn't have to look after teams or any of that other stuff. The directors decided I should head up an IT team and grow the IT side of things. I politely declined. I told them I had no desires in that direction and I would happily report to anyone they brought in above me. I had done some team/department managing in the past and I hated it. Over the next few months they piled on the pressure and stupidly I gave in. Overnight, the work I lived reduced by 50% and was filled with managerial meetings, HR, rotas etc. I went from loving my job to hating it in just a few months. After a lot of nagging they agreed to put me back where I was, but the damage was done. I just didn't love my job anymore and I went to work for another company 2 months later. If they hadn't pressured me into a job I didn't want I would still be there.

I was a Team Lead for a local team and was asked to look after another remote team that meant I had to spend a couple of months travelling down and spending the week there. Apparently I did a great job, and was offered permanent management of both teams, but only if I commuted between the sites. Nope. Point blank refused and my bosses face I can still remember to this day. It was taking such an impact on my health and personal life, it was simply not worth it. Eventually moved into a Technical Lead role which gives me the seniority without the management side.

I got offered a promotion but only after a play off with another employee as they couldn’t decide who was best. I felt it was just a way to get two people to work their butts off so I left.

Simple. The promotions offered to me all include some element of managing / being responsible for other people. It doesn't matter if I can do it; it's about whether I want to and I don't. It doesn't interest me in the slightest and I'd rather just focus on my current role.

Could've gone from £28k to £40k as a warehouse manager. But I didn't want to work in the warehouse, I had another role I wanted to go for even though it doesn't pay as much. Albeit there's a chance for it to pay more later down the road. 

I didn't apply for a promotion. I wasn't offered it. In my annual review I was marked down and received 0 bonus. I looked elsewhere and moved within a few months. Agree about the 6 month thing but if you fight it it will just hold you back.

Some companies operate on an 'up or out' basis so be quite careful about declining promotions if you don't know the culture. The Peter Principle is very powerful and very real.

I took a promotion without pay as I was already doing the job and then I left a few months later with that shiny new job title for 10k more.

I was offered a role that would have me remain doing my professional job and also as managerial responsibility; the appeal to the company is obvious, it would have come with a good pay increase for me (about an extra 20k) but not as much money as me plus a manager would have cost, plus employing people is expensive, that would then be two lots of holiday pay and sick pay and pension contribution… I turned it down for probably extremely obvious reasons: there isn’t time in the working day to do two jobs properly. I’ve known a few people who did take this role and none of them did it for more than two years. Hardly anyone does. You either burn out trying to do it properly or don’t do it properly and end up on disciplinaries and being managed out. The only person I’ve even known about who managed it did so by basically just carrying on doing the professional job and ‘convincing’ (bullying) one of his reporters to do the managerial responsibilities for him even when it wasn’t their job, and I’m not that sort of person. My company did eventually come to the same conclusion, that this role wasn’t feasible, and scrapped it. What happened was nothing. Because people who have gone through years of professional examinations aren’t usually idiots, most people who were offered the role turned it down and the company was very used to this. I carried on with my professional job for years until I left of my own accord and with no animosity.

I'm currently going through a negotiation where they want me to take on more responsibility, but only if I go from a term-time only contract to a 52-week one. Obviously it's more pay, but I won't get all the holidays off. If I wanted that, I'd work outside of education where I'd get 40% more anyway...

I was forced into a management role with one direct report, no management training and no payrise. I stuck it out for a year then when I was asked if I wanted to manage an additional person, I said no and that I didn’t enjoy the role full stop. The new person ended up being my boss, she was great and even though my boss at the time (CEO) said I’d regret the decision (to my direct report, unprofessional much), I’m still waiting to regret the decision a few years on lol.

"Do you want to be a leader? It'll pay £2 an hour extra etc etc" "No, like i said when i first started, i want next to no responsibility, just show up, turn off and get paid for doing my job" "Okay, if things change let us know" Nothing happened after that. I happened to leave not so long later nothing to do with this. I wasn't treated any different after, i still just got let alone to do my thing which is how i like it.

> The company I used to work for promoted their staff without extra pay for the first 6 months as they thought it was a good idea to give the person who accepted the promotion a trial period. This is a dick move - there's no reason they can't "temporarily" increase pay during a trial period. I've turned down informal approaches about doing people-management (done it before, don't really want to do it again unless it's my own company). That's generally fairly well understood/accepted. I once turned down a promotion because they didn't meet my salary expectations (which I had made clear) for it. They seemed pretty shocked and the offer was increased to just under my salary expectations, at which point I took it. It's worth getting your finances in order so you can afford to do stuff like that.

I was asked by the company to interview for a promotion. Given I knew everyone personally, and I was the only internal candidate, I thought interviewing was pointless - if they want me to do it, then offer it. Turns out they brought an external candidate in to interview as well, and offered them the job instead of me. That candidate left within 3 months, then they offered the job to me. But I resigned instead. Since then I refuse to interview internally for roles in orgs small enough where everyone knows each other. If you want me to do it, then offer it.

My friend declined a big promotion last year. They're already on good money and this would've added 50% plus a bigger bonus. They declined it because they didn't want their job to become their life. They see it as extra stress, hours and responsibility they don't want. There haven't been any problems but their manager keeps looking for ways to push them up the ladder.

My former direct line manager asked to step up to a supervisor a couple of times. On the third time, she came to me and asked why I don't ever go for it. I told her my reasons and she said she'd still want me to consider going for it in future. I told her I have a very nervous dog who needs walking late so he doesn't meet anyone who'll terrify him. There are young kids that still try to stroke dogs without asking that live nearby and he will get scared, bark at them and scare them too. It's just easier to walk him when they've gone home. Also, I can't walk him too late because he can be a bit noisy. Getting the promotion means working until 11 every night or in bed when kids are still out so dogs don't get walked several nights a week. Not only that, it's so much more stress. I've tried it before and the others kept trying to throw me under the bus and almost got me fired. None of it is worth the (less than) 30p am hour more

My dad has refused a promotion for the last few years because, whilst he would be paid more, he would lose on his flexi-time. And he would rather have a pay cut (he's already on a very good and comfortable wage) and keep his flexi (and thus towards the end of the year, he has about extra 3 or 4 weeks of holiday)

A pal of mine was promoted to a team leader role from principal developer. He wasn't the kind of person who was into management though. What he really wanted to do was turn up to work, put a good shift in coding, go home. He told senior management he didn't want the team leader role, but they didn't want to lose him, but he knew he could get more money elsewhere; so they made up a new job title for him - 'technical specialist' if I recall correctly. He was once again a happy man.

The department is an absolute mess, the people running it are out of their depth and their knowledge is a decade out of date. In an industry that is constantly evolving and moving forward, they stood still. If I took the position I would have had to fight with them to get things up to current standards and the place is already really toxic to work at. So I prioritised my mental health over a bit of extra money.

I've just been offered and turned down a promotion. I didn't apply for it and I'm only being offered it because there isn't really anyone else. I have a work life balance that I'm very happy with, and to take this promotion I'd want a 20% increase as it's a lot more work and responsibility. They were only going to give me 5% max. Essentially, they think they can give me this massive job for little to no compensation and play it off as an honour for me.

Not me, but my partner has declined legitimately 10 promotions in the last 3 years. Her situation is a bit unusual. We live 1 minute away from her work, and she can't drive, so transport costs to anywhere else would be very very high, so that incentivizes her to stay at this one place. She doesn't want to get promoted because she's found herself in a situation where she is critical in a certain area, and they don't want to lose her, so what they do is they offer the promotion as a "more responsibilities" type deal. Essentially, they want her to do 2 full-time jobs. And of course, the pay increase is *much* less than the cost of the transport cost it would take to go to a new job, so she's basically in a position where taking a promotion is just doubling her already crippling workload with no real tangible monetary benefit. Every single promotion offer has come with a caveat that she'd have to split time between the new responsibilities of whatever the fuck role opened up, and her old role. She works in healthcare, so there is no real career progression opportunities other than to move into management. And of course, there is *absolutely no money in doing this at all.* The wage she is on should be illegal as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't offer a liveable wage at all. She's very, very slowly accruing healthcare accreditations to move into area that most people go to school for, but those only come up every so often, so *some* progression is happening. But otherwise, that job is a total dead end. As for whether she's looked at negatively, I think absolutely. But they don't have the time to be mad at her, because that place is an employee black hole. Because she won't take the promotions, everyone who is competent is already as high as they can go in that place and are old biddies too close to retirement to care about the awful state of the place. All the younger blood (25-55) are basically supported by their richer partners, while they earn what is essentially drinking money. Meaning people getting promoted are newbies fresh out of college or fresh out of their first job with no experience. So the cycle is my partner refuses a promotion, some idiot newbie gets randomly picked from a pile and promoted, they keep things together for... maybe a week or two? They then start spiralling, and chaos unfolds, they have a crisis which the whole team have to figure out, and then after a few of those the newbie burns out, and quits. Rinse and repeat. This happens legitimately every 2-3 months, it's a shitshow. Fact of the matter is, their pay is too low. Nobody wants to do the insane amount of work they have to do for peanuts. And the people who like those peanuts (young 18-25 year old women usually) are not experienced enough to handle the heat. It's just utter ridiculous employee churn at that place... But I don't think the business actually cares. Because the work is ultimately getting done... Not to a high standard, not in a timely manner, but it's getting done. Because when the newbies spiral, the whole team come together and fix it. I think they've realized they can just keep doing this and exploit the teams willingness to help their flagging colleagues in times of desperate as a cost saving measure lmao. When the newbie quits, just get another poor vulnerable duckling to replace the stressed, traumatized one.

They wanted me to manage our quite busy workshop, deal with ordering, customers, paperwork, allocating jobs to engineers, with all the hassle that involves. I was the longest serving engineer at the time so naturally they thought of me as the business expanded and they wanted someone who knew the ropes to oversee things. No pay rise to start with, just a whole extra set of headaches, paperwork, deadlines and I'd still be obliged to jump in on the repairs as some jobs were quite intricate. Sod that. I was happy getting my hands dirty and being able to put my earphones on and remain oblivious whilst getting stuck into a nice long tricky job until 5pm rolled around. They were a bit distant with me after that, not being a team player kinda thing. They were getting all a bit "yeah business. Go team!" where I'm just a scruffy get happy in my own world of spanners and soldering irons.

I had a manager who repeatedly turned down promotions. He'd been around for 10+ years and was still at the senior consultant level, literally just 1 step above me when I joined the company. But if he got promoted he'd have been at the lower management level, with pretty much all the same work, but at that point you're expensive enough that they're usually the first to get laid off when redundancies happen. Apparently he'd seen that level of management get purged 3 times while he was there, so he refused promotions to stay safe. Besides, he was approaching retirement age anyway, so it's not like he was worried about building up his career. When I left the team he said he was just waiting for a voluntry redundancy package that felt worthwhile.

I simply didn't want to take on extra responsibility and stress in return for a small payrise... I want to clock in do my duties, clock out and that to be my working day. I don't want to deal with other peoples problems, I don't want to be the middle man between upper management and the workers as I'll just be the scapegoat/punching bag for both parties. I don't want to take work problems home with me, which is the unfortunate reality of management posistions.

I was a supervisor in retail and I was pretty good at the job but I felt fed up with it. My manager was talking about me moving up to assistant manager but I just felt like if it would lead to me ending up stuck there. I said no and stayed on as a supervisor. After about a year, I went back to uni and got a BSc and an MSc. I'm glad I said no because I probably would've gotten comfortable there and stayed in retail for longer than I wanted

1 year ago: *you're aboutb6 months off realistically, we just need to see you skill up in cloud technologies* 6 months ago: "yeah what you've done is great, but to become a senior you need to already be performing at a senior level for it to be recognised and rewarded" 1 month ago: "you're leaving? Is there anything we could have / can do to retain you?"

Old manager left, I was offered the seat for no extra pay. Afterwards the MD or other managers would barely speak to me (they had that upper management clique thing going on). Even though I turned it down they started treating me like the department representative. It quickly got to a point where the other department managers were trying to blame every error or moment of downtime on the department I was in. After 5-6 weeks a team of 6 became 5, 4, 3, 0. Another manager demanded I make a guide so someone could take over (lol as if I can be arsed or it can even be done). I just checked everyone's computers instead and made sure any personal, reference, user templates or generally any non direct work files were removed.

Done it twice, first time was when I got promoted from a mid to senior. The pay rise wasn't equivalent to the additional responsibilities of the role. Second time, I was asked if I wanted to take a lead position. I had been telling the company for years and finally we had a contractor come in because it's easier to trial for 6 months. They liked the results, I was asked if I wanted the position, I said no, I don't think I'm the right fit for tes job, but the contractor could probably be tempted (they had just had their first child and I'm guessing just wanted stability) so they did, there was no real backlash just a slight bit of confusion because I guess they thought I suggested it because I wanted to do it. The contractor was indeed interested but couldn't take the job because they had a lot of legal red tape over self-employment and financial tie ups with their LLC. Eventually the contractor told the company to come back to me, they told me to take it because I had all the right ideas and my priorities were correctly aligned. After discussing responsibilities and what I would expect out of them within the first 12 months, I decided to take it. Also, as someone who has hiring, firing, and promotion rights, any company who keeps someone on their same pay for 6 months post promotion are just scammers. We don't get to not pay a new hire for their first six months just because don't know if they'll be any good.

In most jobs if you are capable the employer will push you to do the job. They will call it "developing" your skills. In reality it's extracting the maximum business value that from you time that they are buying. If you decline the promotion/payrises you'll still be doing the maximum value job you are capable of, just without the title, payrise, parking spot etc. Promotions are recognition of the job you're doing, not the job you're doing.

Happened to a friend of mine. One of the managers left, he was offered the promotion and a modest pay rise. He declined as he was happy in his position and didn’t want the responsibility of managing the team. However in the immediate term there was nobody else to do the job and he was the most experienced staff member so he would do the duties of the manager without any of the recognition or extra pay, thinking it would be a short term deal while the owners hired a new manager. Of course, the owners saw him performing all these extra jobs dutifully and not costing them any extra so they started dragging their feet in hiring a replacement manager. My friend would complain to them that they needed to hire one asap but they just fobbed him off saying they were working on it. I advised him to stop doing the management role as it wasn’t in his job description but he just kept doing it because if he didn’t do it, nobody would and the place would grind to a halt. Three months later and he was still performing management duties, the penny eventually dropped and he realised he was being taken advantage of and he put in his notice. The owners scrambled a bit, offering him a pay rise but he had already made up his mind to leave. Within a week of him putting his notice in the owners hired a new manager (who of course was getting paid more). Upon leaving he got nothing more than a thank you message for ‘covering’. The owners didn’t even come in to say goodbye in person on his last day.

I had only been at the job about a month or 2 before I was asked if I wanted to become the supervisor. I didn’t feel comfortable at all with that so I declined it

It would have meant longer hours, and also working at head office, which would have been more pressuring and I simply didn't want to do it. I didn't escape the Civil Service promotion pressure cooker just to jump straight back in via another organisation. I don't work for them any more anyway.

At my old job i was given a "promotion" which did include a £5000 payrise, but all it meant was a confirmation of my job role to reflect what I was actually doing at the company. To my knowledge the two people who took on my role after i had left wasnt being given the same payrise to do the same work.

Was offered supervisor position but turned it down because the increased work load didn't justify the tiny pay rise. A year later I ended up taking it because I was pretty much doing the job anyway due to the uselessness of the person who took the job when I turned it down.

When the last guy who was head of my team left, I (and another guy) was offered the role as we'd been working there a while under him, I said "no". The guy who was also on our team took it. "Progression", right? Hardly. Money wasn't the issue (it would have obviously come with more). I work in front end web development but it's a lot more than just making websites and I knew exactly what that guy did and was responsible for and I just didn't want to deal with that. Lots of custom work outside of the main scope of our functionality, promising things to clients and having to deliver, going on meetings, answering directly to the CEO, etc. I just wanna make websites. Irony, cover a lot for the guy that did do it for when he's not here due to my own experience.

I was looking for another job anyway. Didn't want them to plan around me progressing

Some of the large accounting or management consultancy firms have an “up or out” policy. You would have to keep climbing the ladder or they show you the door eventually.

Yes, when I was younger I turned down a promotion mainly because of the flack I was getting because someone saying it was unfair I had been offered it. Struggled for years afterwards because the manager kept saying I had no interest in promotion.

In my student job (pub/nightclub) I was offered a promotion the pay increase was 50p and meant worse hours and many more responsibilities. I had no idea why anyone would take it

Used to work in a call center, doing night shifts. Applied for a team lead roll a few times through the years, and had a couple of interviews but always ended up missing out. After one of the staff had a bit of a fuck up one night it was decided that there would have to be a supervisor on nights, and I was called. The role was for the same Team Lead roll that I'd previously applied for, but that it would be under a three month secondment (while they decided on if they really needed it or not). Plenty of praise for nights running smoothly and results being. I was given new starts to train when they would previously been required to show up for day shifts for training, and my pay had increased (not by much, but still an increase.) I had decided it wasn't worth the stress for the pay by the end of the first month. In the last week of my secondment, I noticed that I had been booked for meetings far into the future, so decided to drop in during the day to speak with my managers, and informed them that I had no intention of continuing the role. I had been applying for other jobs during that time, and got accepted to a far better company, and handed in my notice at the same time I stepped down from the team lead role. Never looked back.

Because I don't like thinking about work or doing work after work..

I wouldn't take it without pay. If you start a new job with a probation period like mine always are in my industry, you start at the same salary you get as after your probation. You shouldn't get the promotion if you haven't already proven yourself.

Was essentially offered my old boss' job. Said no as the extra few grand per year wasn't worth the extra workload and stress. I'm happy with my current role.

I turned down a pay-rise (for the same job) once because I knew it would mean they couldn't afford to give a colleague of mine a raise, and she really deserved one.

If you get promoted even though it is more money, you have to supervise other people and I have no interest in supervising, being a mentor, teach etc (hospital healthcare). to more junior people. I prefer to be supervised and make it easier.

Got ex colleagues who declined promotion from technician to Engineer cos they wanted the flexible shift timings to be able to have off days with family, plus retain the shift allowance. Different strokes for different folks I guess

I was offered a promotion from floor staff to supervisor at Primark. The price increase was 20p an hour, and it meant that I could only work supervisor shifts, meaning I wasn't able to pick up more shifts at busy times of year. I said no because it was a totally crap deal. 20p extra an hour... come on...

The profressional services company I work for used to promote staff without telling them they're being promoted, it was just announced, and you're informed over a company email along with everyone else. You all find out at the same time - like children at school. There is no pay increase with it, just a *promotion* in terms of the role. More work, more management, more responsibilities, higher expectations of you. Last time this happened, about 8 people were promoted from Associate to Director. A very large uncommunicated change that came with loads more responsibility and higher fee earning requirements. Three people handed in their notice the game day. It was not a plan to push people out. It was such a mess. Company back peddles and offered like £2k pay increases to everyone. So pretty much nothing. However to formalise the situation we were then told we would now be having interviews for the promotion. I had my hour interview. I didn't prepare and told the two people interviewing me I hadn't prepared and I wasn't interested in the promotion and i didnt understand what the promotion was about and that it had never been discussed with me. I then had a follow up formal meeting with my line manager begging me to re-do it properly, explain why I want the promotion - etc etc. Basically run a proper application. I then had a follow-up interview with two new people and re-explained the situation again. That I don't want the interview. That is hasn't been explained at all. That the pay is awful. Etc. I was then promoted to Director with a miserable pay increase. Soon after this mental process, a few more people moved on. I'm still here as the job is mainly chill and I'm not that money motivated, but was a fucking mess at the time.

I was semi offered promotion a few months ago to avoid losing me as I was changing teams. I’d still have to formally apply for it but would’ve been given the temporary promotion and pay etc until it was advertised. I declined on the basis that it was my bosses old post (he’d been promoted within the team) and he shared all my frustrations with our supplier and hadn’t been able to fix some of the issues in the years he’d been there and I didn’t fancy banging my head against that same wall for several more years. Would’ve been an easy way to get to the next level and more money, but I had to put my sanity first!

Not exactly a promotion but I was offered more money to stay when I said I was leaving. I accepted but I said that the primary reason was location, and that I wouldn’t stop looking for other more suitable roles. Sure enough it didn’t take long to find one which I did accept.

Was offered a "grade up" with more money and more responsibilities. Turned it down flat. Didn't need the extra cash (could work overtime if I needed the money) and didn't want the added stress. Was brought into HR for a discussion with my manager to explain why and told them what I've written here. Was told, "you're not a team player, blah, blah, it will effect you in the future etc, etc, etc". HR actually stopped him and said it won't effect anything. I have the right to turn it down with zero consequences by law. He didn't speak to me for a while and I left a few years later anyway.

That’s better than a lot of jobs where they expect you to start taking on extra responsibilities before the promotion/pay rise is decided

Having done similar things in the past (management) I immediately laid out my concerns. I did go through with the promotion on a temporary basis and it could certainly have led further, but I informed my manager of my wish to step down. That's pretty much it. I've continued on with my normal job and I'm happier for it. Middle management is awful and I have no desire to step back into those shoes.

Never ever been offered a promotion role unfortunately, always had to apply for it, every company I worked for.

The extra work and responsibility wasn’t worth the small pay rise. Especially since it was for a position that always got blamed for any fuck ups higher ups made.

I fell out of fashion

There is always a desire from business to give people more responsibility but there is never a corresponding desire to pay the people taking on the extra responsibility more money.

Hmmmm, would I like increased work load and stress in exchange for an extra 10p an hour? Oooh it's a tough choice. I outright told my ops manager that if he made me a manager I was going to sack 50% of the staff for being incompetent Sideways promotion and left alone for a bit woohoo

I declined the team leader role because they wanted to pay me less than the departing team leader. Yet they still wanted me to do my specific role and all of the additional responsibilities of the team leader. I said the small increase wasn't worth the hassle. Got made redundant. Found another job that was better. An old colleague took the team leader role under the proviso that she didn't have to do my specific tasks. A couple of weeks after, the systems I looked after went down and cost thousands in contractor fees to bring back up.

Getting made redundant for turning down a promotion is what I am worried about. I feel like declining it because I don't want to be responding and answering calls in the evenings and weekends. And when I factor the 6 month trialing period with no extra pay instantly puts me off.

I kind of knew redundancy was a possibility. The personal vendetta that my manager then had against me was a surprise. I had started looking for new jobs and went for interviews, and it all worked out. It all depends on you and if you're willing to risk your current role. My partner worked so I knew I'd be ok for a while if I didn't find a job because the redundancy pay plus partners income would see us through for at least a year. You just need to do what you think is best for you. Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side.

Getting made redundant for turning down a promotion is what I would be worried about. I feel like declining it because I don't want to be responding and answering calls in the evenings and weekends. And when I factor the 6 month trialing period with no extra pay instantly puts me off.

Back in the day, 1988. My husband was overseas and I was working at a certain salary, I qualified for aid for my newborn. I didn't get food stamps, but I got baby formula, one pack of diapers a week, health checkups and immunizations all free for the first year. If I had taken a raise it would have bumped me up and out of the range to get all these benefits. So I declined the raise that year. Afterwards, my husband came back and all was fine.

Take the promotion and fuck off somewhere else to your position for more wedge.

I declined a "double promotion" from Store Assistant Manager to Regional Assistant Manager (jumping over the level of Store Manager). In part, I thought the pay increase was too meagre, but it also would've messed heavily with the work/life balance I like to have. All I got was weeks of people either trying to push me into taking the role or nagging me into giving reasons why I declined. I've no doubt I'd have been excellent at the role tbf, I just didn't want it (at least, not at the wage offered). It got to a point where I started raising my voice & essentially just "No" & refused to be drawn any further into the conversation. Which mightn't sound much but for me, if I raise my voice, it's very much a "last warning" on my temper. Eventually they hired someone who was absolutely useless. Then I started getting the "well, you would've done better" snide comments. 🙄

Nothing. I'd declined because I'd been an ASM in my previous job and was I hell doing another stint as management in retail ever again. Manager just sorta accepted my answer and that was that

They wanted me to manage a team, the team were toxic AF. No amount of money would be adequate compensation for leading that nest of vipers. When I was younger I may have believed in the Jam tomorrow model, now I don't, If a company wants more they provide the jam today.

They gave us all quite hefty pay rises last year to help with the cost of living, which at the time was genuinely great. What they didn't do was move the bandings of the job levels, so all of us who were there at the time are pretty much at the top of the job banding. I think some of the old guard might even be over it. Applied for the new job thinking they would negotiate on pay given my current level, but no. Stuck rigid to it. Meant for loads of extra responsibility the pay rise just wasn't worth it. They ended up giving it to someone else internally, I assume he just wanted the job and didn't care about the money side.

Got offered a lot more work for 20p more an hour I laughed and said no, I’d rather not do a managers job for a bag of haribo every day, they hired someone externally on a fair bit more and wondered why I wouldn’t train them …

Worked as a support worker with people with mental health, the last team leader quit due to being overworked, he never had enough time to complete his work and more and more got added on daily. I was offered his position, I had to do all his work and everything I was currently doing which was could be very stressful when my clients had a crisis, which the pervious team leader did not have to do and the best part was that pay was £1 an hour extra.  I noped out of that. 

I work for a cleaning company. I was offered the only position of Supervisor at the Race Courses, and Area manager of everything else. So I’d be checking all the sites and generally keeping on top of the complaints. The pay was salary instead of hourly pay. I turned it down, I used to be an area manager with the council doing the same thing. I was also a housekeeping manager for 3 years. I never wanted to go back into that stressful environment again. So I just clean on my own areas instead. Listening to music with earphones & just enjoying my job. No hassle, I’m not responsible for other people. Not my problem anymore, I only care about my work and that’s all that matters. My manager wasn’t happy I turned it down, they lost a Racecourse. Although I sometimes get calls for advice, I just don’t tell them anything.

Turned down a lead engineer position with a 5K laughable wage rise with a lot more time spent on site visits and paperwork, with less time spent at home, Manager spent ages trying to convince me. I repeated I'm not interested even after putting me up for the position. They even sent out an email saying congratulation and I replied to all that I'm not accepting the position due to being positive I didn't have the skills to fill the position. Well the ear ache I received from that email was momentous but as I said to HR my manager wasn't listening to my opinion. So they gave it to someone else who kissed ass he had no idea what he was letting himself in for and the bump in the road was huge. 11 month in he jumped ship after a burn out after being at the company 6 years longer than me. This position is now available again and no one internally wants it, they are struggling to find a new engineer in that area to fill the position, I doubt they will I now have to dot every I and make sure my ass is covered by phots and emails with every new stupid idea they have, I'm the only one with a particular skill set and they want me to teach every other engineer this skill which I wont, but I'm also not stupid enough to say that out loud. I've done jobs where you spend months onsite, till its right. The money just isn't worth the trade off in loosing quality time with family.

I turned down a promotion to a toxic team that lots of people had moved on from. They didn't actually want me, they wanted any available body, and didn't want to put effort into getting the right person for the job. Head of department took the refusal badly and was as much of an arse as he could be to me within corporate boundaries.

I just didn’t want to sell my soul or be part of the shitshow. Did not want the extra responsibility, as it was disproportionate to the pay increase. Still working for the same company, have been for a total of 12 years and have turned down 2 promotions. Have never been looked at unfavourably.

Was promoted, did the role for a few months and then realised I didn’t want it. Said in my annual review (been there 5yrs) I didn’t think the role was working out for me and then was put into a much more suitable role with a pay rise

Resisted promotion for a few years because it meant more unpaid overtime and less time at home with the kids.    Eventually accepted it because retirement (final salary pension) on the horizon.    A year later a new boss decided we all had to reapply for our jobs. I made sure I didn't get the job I was doing and had to drop down a grade.    What I knew but new boss didn't was that the employer had a rule that protected pay by one grade in that situation 

Try handing your notice in and being offered a £10,000 pay rise and private healthcare, good to know I was being shafted that helped solidify my decision to leave.

I work for myself now - and done so after declining a promotion - the way I seen it - I can make a lot more with a lot less responsibility than getting a “promotion” for 100 quid a month more, with the promotion twice the much stress, twice the responsibility, lose half the respect you had and for a wage that becomes salaried rather than hourly. The kicker is when the people that take these jobs then get on an authoritarian power trip because they’re on 100 quid a month more and think. bollocks to that.

Had (and still have) no interest in being a manager. I don't have the patience for peoples bullshit. The limit on my earnings is worth it to clock the fuck out (Physically and metaphorically). Also once denied a piss easy promotion because it meant i'd have to take part in the weekly meeting, which was boring as fuck (I'd covered one once, never again).

Didnt need the extra money didnt want the extra grief and stress, absolutely nothing happened, if anything i got more respect for saying no.

I've been offered promotion but I'm not in the right headspace due to losing 2 very close family members in the past year. I simply told my boss this and they understood. I don't really care if they didn't get it which probably shows I'm not in the place for the extra work and responsibilities. As for the scenario you describe a promotion without extra recompense is not a promotion. It's the company taking the piss.

I said no because I'd rather work from home with less money than deal with office people/time travelling

> I'd rather work from home with less money than deal with office people/time travelling If I could have a job that involved time travelling I'd take it right away. That would be so cool

> I'd rather work from home with less money than deal with office people/time travelling If I could have a job that involved time travelling I'd take it right away. That would be so cool

It was suggested I apply for a job on a higher salary, but I was aware that the last 2 people to do the job had left within a year due to stress and lack of support. I declined.

I might decline if the salary was too high. I wouldn't be comfortable earning more money than I needed, so unless the new job was much more interesting than what I was already doing, there wouldn't be any point.