Happier without promotions and raises?

[wealthviahealth]

I work in a fairly fast paced tech culture where promotions/ raises happen 2x a year and on average folks get promoted every 1-2 years.
Though this can be motivating- I often find myself far to caught up in the "rat race" as it comes to all of this and find that comparisons and aspiration can often have a fairly narrative impact on my quality of life and daily enjoyment. I am often happiest/most content in the windows I forget all about promotions and comparisons to others and I find that many of my co-workers often find themselves stressed/ caught up in jealously over this. My friends/family who are in the more so "feel good" helping professions are not caught up in this aspect of the rat race since promotions/ salary increases are not really a thing in their world.
Im curious to know about the experience of folks on here who have been in and out of cultures where promotions/salary increases are part of the job. What has been most helpful in tuning this noise out for you while also ensuring you are progressing in your career?
 

[maisymouser]

Early in my career here so you're welcome to take a grain of salt with all this. I imagine it can be stressful to be in that kind of culture, though I've been largely on the other end (when are they going to give me a reasonable raise/promotion? eh I'll leave and try my luck at another company).

My first thought is- be a role model and change the culture. When those topics come up you can say "won't matter much to me either way, I am happy with my life, and I'm going to put my best foot forward with my work regardless of whether or not I get XYZ". I'd be curious to hear what a co-worker says to that.

Does your boss put much pressure on you about these things and how they relate to the quality of work you are producing? If not, don't sweat it and do your best. It's all you can do, after all!

[Dicey]

My first two three thoughts are:
1. If that's the culture you're in, embrace it. Make it work for you. Many jobs have far fewer opportunities for pay raises and/or advancement.
2. Keep your lip zipped, your ears closed and stop comparing yourself to others.
3. Sounds like excellent motivation to keep striving for FIRE, which gives you the last laugh.

[Steeze]

If your title / salary is adequate for your needs and expectations, then don't try to outperform everyone. Do a good enough job to keep your job and spend the extra time on projects that interest you. Even if that is outside of work or unpaid or purely academic. Expect more, "we would like to see improvements in these areas at the next review," instead of the usual, "we really appreciate you hard work and everything you do for the company."

My job does nothing for me in terms of the greater good - my hard work helps wealthy real estate developers get even more wealthy. I am here for a pay check, the biggest paycheck I can get. More sooner = better - whatever that takes. If I stop getting more then I need to evaluate if where I am is enough for the work that I do, or if I can get more somewhere else. This is the first year I haven't gotten a raise - owners have not addressed the 3 month late (and counting) raise yet. Maybe they thought we would forget?

[BDWW]

Fairly common engineer complaint I think, but I've been moving up slowly over time through (almost) no effort of my own. And I'm in charge of people now, I have to attend meetings, and work with board members, etc.

And sometimes I ponder if I could get my company to cut my pay back and put me back down to basic engineer where I just make stuff and don't deal with the people/politics/management. So I don't have an answer to the question, but I definitely feel it.

[Paper Chaser]

Fairly common engineer complaint I think, but I've been moving up slowly over time through (almost) no effort of my own. And I'm in charge of people now, I have to attend meetings, and work with board members, etc.

And sometimes I ponder if I could get my company to cut my pay back and put me back down to basic engineer where I just make stuff and don't deal with the people/politics/management. So I don't have an answer to the question, but I definitely feel it.

I work with a ton of engineers, and this is a very common complaint. It's a big reason why I've intentionally stayed in more of an "entry level" role. For me, it's a balance between amount of work and commensurate pay/stress/job security. I get very similar pay with far lower stress and more job security in my current role than if I tried to climb the ladder. Chasing/landing promotions would increase stress and reduce job security in a way that seems disproportional to the minimal pay increases. I guess the basic example that I consider is: Is an 8% increase in pay worth a 15-20% increase in stress and a 10% reduction in job security? Who benefits more from that raise, me or my employer? I'm not sure that's applicable to the tech industry, but it's been my experience thus far in engineering/manufacturing.

When I see people that are most driven to FIRE, it's usually because they're over stressed from work. The additional pay they often get isn't worth the added stress. The balance between pay/stress/job security is out of whack and has become more beneficial for the employer than the employee. If you can find a spot where that balance is in your favor, instead of your employer's favor, then working a little longer is much less of a big deal.

[Freedomin5]

I prefer the salary increase without the promotion. It helped me to look at it from this perspective: A promotion means more responsibility with means when SHTF, it’s my reputation and my job on the line.  Also, the higher up you go, the more of your time is spent solving people problems rather than actually working on cool stuff. I didn’t spent six years in graduate school to sit around listening to people being upset at me and at each other and solving people problems.

[ixtap]

Fairly common engineer complaint I think, but I've been moving up slowly over time through (almost) no effort of my own. And I'm in charge of people now, I have to attend meetings, and work with board members, etc.

And sometimes I ponder if I could get my company to cut my pay back and put me back down to basic engineer where I just make stuff and don't deal with the people/politics/management. So I don't have an answer to the question, but I definitely feel it.

DH's former manager has done this. The only pay cut was the manager part, which if I recall is only a couple of thousand per 3 direct reports. And they have an issue drumming up direct reports, so not many fill out the second set of 3.

The expectations are still a bit higher than for DH. If someone needs to make prickly requests outside iyf their team, it is probably still former manager. However former manager has been commenting about how much engineering he gets to to do now that he doesn't have so many meetings. Of course, he is at the last level that actually includes engineer in the title. One more level up and he might not have had such a smooth transition.

[former player]

I got very quickly promoted to "senior expert" level in my organisation and then stuck there for the rest of my career.  The next level up involved management (which both I and the people I would have managed would have hated) and paid very little more unless prepared to go on to the higher reaches of management - and even then not that much more for the hassle involved.  Did I care about the prestige? A little, early on, but came to terms with it pretty easily.  Because I was senior at my level, and very good at my job, I got the pick of assignments, never had to do work I found uninteresting and when I did have trouble with my immediate manager it was the immediate manager who came off worse.

So I would suggest you having a clear-eyed look at the various levels in your organisation, identify the one that gives you the best bang for you buck and aim for that (or stay at it if you are already there).  If you don't find a level you would be comfortable at then you are either aiming to be top dog or looking to move out.

[firstmatedavy]

I can relate to this. I'm a prog, and I've never worked somewhere where it's normal to get promoted very quickly, but in my most recent job search I've started noticing that someday I'll have 10-15 years of experience, which would probably look weird on a "junior software developer" (or maybe even mid?) job application.

I'm not sure I want to be a senior engineer? It looks like more meetings, more dealing with environments and deployment, and I'd rather just write code. I don't want to get boxed into a situation where I look overqualified on paper for the jobs I like, but I'm not ready to "move up" because of the extra stress and different type of work that would involve.

What does one do about this? Would hopping to a new programming language every few years avoid the issue? (Obviously RE would help some.)

[mm1970]

I prefer the salary increase without the promotion. It helped me to look at it from this perspective: A promotion means more responsibility with means when SHTF, it’s my reputation and my job on the line.  Also, the higher up you go, the more of your time is spent solving people problems rather than actually working on cool stuff. I didn’t spent six years in graduate school to sit around listening to people being upset at me and at each other and solving people problems.

I'm so lucky to get the promotions without the money. /s