Do you "have" to further yourself in work?

It's considered a little odd if you're happy to do the same thing for the rest of your life and not be eager to get your teeth into more challenging work.

That said, most people recognise that taking a management position and/or taking a position that involves lots of overtime have many positives and negatives. Even though they involve more money, they also involve unsocial hours, seeing less of friends and family, and maybe even moving away from the enjoyable work into more administrative work.

But in general if you have the opportunity to take a non-management role that involves more money and a greater level of responsibility, most people will find it weird if someone isn't interested.

It depends on the work environment, but your attitude towards promotions is in my experience not entirely correct. Yes, if presented with two candidates for a position and one is best mates with the manager who's hiring, then they'll get it. But companies in general like to hire from within. An internal hire is way cheaper and more effective - chances are they can practically do the job already with minimal coaching, they know the processes and the culture of the company, and assuming they're halfway competent it means the company can be assured that the employee isn't going to leave in the medium-term.
External hires who are good mates with the interviewers is quite heavily frowned upon, not least because you may end up having to fire your best mate when he's crap, but also because most companies don't want to be seen to obviously allowing nepotism.
It'll happen all the time in small companies, but a lot less obviously so in larger companies.

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Em, not really to be perfectly fair. I had a good look at the job spec for the 2 promotions and, with my experience, I would be well able for it. But office politics usually mean these jobs are created for a desired person rather than most qualified etc. Im not really sure where the bad attitude comes from. It wouldnt be unambitious to not turn down extra hours in my view. Plus my boss when coming to me and saying he was surprised I didnt apply was a bit false, he probably knows who ends up getting the job, these promotions always go like that in the end!

Do you not realise that you've basically accused your boss of nepotism and only hiring his mates - i.e. you've just accused your boss of being corrupt and incompetent.

If you find your work life turning to crap in the coming weeks, you'll have only yourself to blame tbh.

Let's put it this way; the company are under no obligation to advertise new positions internally. If they knew who they wanted to promote, they would just promote them and be done with it.

Why would they go to the trouble and waste of holding a beauty contest when they've already picked the winner?

The answer is they haven't. Yes, they might have some preferred candidates, but some people who look good on paper can give awful interviews, and likewise people who otherwise seem a bit bleh can surprise you at interview and really impress.

Being encouraged to go for a job and then not getting it, doesn't mean that the thing was rigged. You don't have the same visibility that management do; you don't know how they performed in the interview, you don't know the details of their work performance, etc.

It sounds to me like you're afraid to interview and you've convinced yourself that it's a waste of your time so you can tell yourself that's why you're not going for it.

Whether you're going to get it or not apply anyway, show some form of interest.

There's nothing wrong with not wanting to further yourself but the way you express that should be more "I don't feel I'm right for that role, I'm very happy in my current position and feel I perform well here" and less "I can't be arsed because I won't get it anyway".

It's your attitude/approach that's the problem not your lack of desire for promotion.

Fair play for speaking your mind op. Too much ball licking goes on these days. If what you said is your opinion and true then the boss could do with a few home truths. I'd admire the backbone and honesty if it was me, but I value honesty over everything. Many people don't.

I suppose I have a bad attitude too. I just consider myself a realist.