Most Americans would turn down a promotion that required them to be available outside of working hours, even if it came with a bump in pay, data suggests.
According to a recent survey of nearly 14,000 workers across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Europe conducted by emotional insight platform Hint App, 58% of workers would reject a promotion that required them to be available after hours. That number rises to 59% in the United States, where 62% would also decline moving into management at the expense of work-life boundaries.
“It’s about that fear of the expectation that employees remain permanently available outside their normal working hours,” says Hint App’s PR manager Leigh Roberts. “It’s about being expected to answer evening messages, respond to work communications on weekends, be available during leave or on holiday and remain reachable while technically off work.”
According to the survey, two-thirds of American workers believe that promotions come with unspoken expectations over their time outside of work, while 56% have witnessed colleagues become noticeably less happy after moving into management.
“It’s not that they want to stay where they are,” says Roberts. “They want greater responsibility and higher earnings, while maintaining boundaries around their personal lives.”
Each generation has a reason to decline promotions
According to the survey, 71% of American respondents aged 18 to 34 would decline a move into management if it came at the cost of work-life boundaries, and 65% would prefer career progression that didn’t include overseeing others.
“It’s not that young people are rejecting ambition,” Roberts says. “But younger workers appear less willing to accept management as the automatic next step in a career.”
Older workers, meanwhile, have their own reasons to shun leadership. According to a recent survey by resume-building platform Zety, one in ten Gen Xers has turned down a promotion or accepted slower career growth as a direct result of caregiving responsibilities.
“Over 20% of Gen Xers are in this sandwich generation, where they’re not only caregiving for the young, but also caregiving for the elderly,” explains Zety career expert Jasmine Escalera. “Over 50% of Gen Xers are saying not only is it impacting them at home, but those caregiving responsibilities are impacting them in the workplace and contributing to burnout.”
Escalera explains that mid-career professionals who already feel burned out by their existing responsibilities are unlikely to take on more, even if it comes with a raise and title upgrade.
Promotions aren’t the only career goal
There was a time when turning down a promotion would seem unthinkable, as climbing the corporate ladder was the primary professional objective.
That all started to change during the pandemic, according to Escalera, when workers got an opportunity to reevaluate their career priorities and when many got their first taste of remote work.
“That conversation around well-being, flexibility and remote work was introduced during the pandemic, and once we got a flavor for it, people started thinking about their careers much differently,” she says, adding that those conversations spread even further online. “I did not know what a toxic workplace was, or imposter syndrome, or even had a thought about flexibility until those became conversations on social media.”
Those two forces — the pandemic and social media — inspired many to reevaluate how work fits into their lives, and question whether the expectations that came with career advancement were worth the trade-off, Escalera says.
According to a recent survey conducted by global HR company Careerminds, one in three workers turned down a promotion last year. The top reason respondents gave for doing so was that they didn’t want to lose their current degree of work-life balance. Furthermore, 16% said the pay increase was not worth the extra responsibility, and an equal proportion said it wasn’t worth the extra stress.
“It’s not that people are necessarily less ambitious, but that they’re defining success differently than before,” says Careerminds certified professional career coach Amanda Augustine. “It’s not enough just to get a better title and a bump in pay. They’re really looking at what that promotion means; not only for my career, but my personal life.”
The fact that so many are actively turning down salary increases in what has been a challenging economy and job market also speaks volumes, adds Augustine.
Few want to jump in knowing middle managers are drowning
Another factor that may be making promotions less attractive is the added challenges middle managers have faced in recent years due to layoffs, staffing shortages, AI adoption pressure and political polarization in the workplace.
“Managers are facing a lot of different challenges that they didn’t necessarily have before,” Augustine explains. “They’re not only navigating how to manage both AI agents and real human beings, but also how to have very difficult and complex conversations with individuals because things are constantly changing. Meanwhile, [the business is] making cuts and trying to get more out of everyone, and not every manager is feeling very equipped to handle that.”
According to a separate study by Careerminds, 97% of HR professionals believe their organization provides adequate training to help managers navigate conversations around layoffs, AI anxiety, and workplace conflicts. But just 41% of managers agree.
“When companies start realizing that they don’t have a pipeline to promote anymore, things are going to have to change,” Augustine says. “Companies are going to have to be more cognizant of what they are offering their employees at all levels in terms of promoting a healthier work-life balance and providing the right training and support.”
Don’t be afraid to negotiate
Before turning down a promotion, however, Augustine suggests negotiating for more favorable terms.
“Just like when you’re interviewing for a new job in a new company, the first offer they throw out is not necessarily the only offer on the table,” she says. “Instead of automatically saying, ‘I’m not doing this,’ think about what you could be negotiating for in order to make it a better opportunity for yourself.”
Augustine explains that many assume asking for things like clearer expectations and work-life boundaries might hurt their chances of getting promoted. However, she notes that those who are being considered for advancement are typically in a strong negotiating position.
“You already have a relationship with these people,” she says. “They wanted to promote you because they think you’re good at what you do, and you have potential, so you’re in a very good position to negotiate and turn it into an opportunity that works better for you.”