'I had to keep reminding my boss of our agreement': Employee plans brilliant exit strategy after boss refuses to promote them

Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor

Feb 5, 2024 11:00 AM EST

If you excel at your work, you might get rewarded with… more work. Such is the way of the world at many workplaces!

Your employer wants you to give 110% at work, and even that is not enough. In fact, some people recommend only ever working to 80% of your capacity to get around this fact. The reward for mediocrity is usually just keeping your job and getting a fine performance review. But if you excel, and you have a hard time saying "no," you may wind up with dozens of extra tasks on your plate.

At some businesses, the extra work is a slow trickle. Your boss might ask you to file some extra papers each week, or to start sending outreach emails to a dozen more clients every day. Once you've succeeded at that, they have a few more things for you to do. That slow trickle is often your boss offloading their chores onto you and calling it delegation. Even as the employee becomes increasingly more stressed out, they can't walk back their original agreement without their boss looking at them funny. It doesn't always have to be a loss, though. If your employer is good enough to give you a raise or a promotion, it can all be worth it in the end.

This person has realized that through first-hand experience, and I wish them well as they embark on their well-executed plan! Check out the whole story below. And after that, check out these extremely satisfying times people got to say no.