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A young worker talks on his phone outside his office building, deciding what to do about his job.
The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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When this employee took a promotion, they found themselves wishing for the simplicity of their old job. The promotion had seemed good on paper, with an 18k pay increase along with a much better title to boot.
They quickly found that their old job had been comfortable and “perfect” for them. They had fallen into the classic trap of progression: Be successful at a productive role, and you will soon find yourself in management, sitting in meetings, just wondering what the heck happened, being forced to make high-level decisions that could make or break the future of your department and the organization as a whole.
This is, of course, where the “Peter Principle” comes from, the idea that workers who are competent at one level of an organization will be promoted until they reach their competency threshold, and especially since the pathway to growth from successful production is usually into management, which is a skill completely unlike the productive skill itself, the new manager will be completely out of their depth.
The “Peter Principle” tells us, that once someone has reached that competency threshold and is promoted into the next level of work, where they are no longer competent, they will remain stuck there for (relative) eternity at that level of the organization, where they will continue to remain steadfastly incompetent and feeling stuck and, with growing frustration, will become one of those terrible bosses that we all so deride.
So what do we do when we feel ourselves out of our depth and wish to be back in our old, productive roles?
The reality is that asking for a step back is going to be extremely damaging in the eyes of most leaders. Many will interpret it as you “can't take it,” and weren't “made for management,” and will never give you another chance. This will also reinforce any manager's worldview and the fact that their work is “important” and “difficult," so they'll be all too happy to accept the fact that someone isn't cut out for it, even though that's not entirely true.
So, when you find yourself out of your depth, you simply need to learn how to swim. Seek to upskill and simultaneously fake it until you make it, so you don't end up becoming the Peter Principle you so fear you are becoming. And, if you find yourself needing to take a step back and regroup, figure out what you can learn from the situation, and without letting the stress you're drowning in overwhelm you, find some way that you can constructively have the conversation with leadership and start winding everything back in a way that will work for everyone. Or, take your newfound title and responsibility, and brush up that CV and start finding another out for yourself.
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"Got promoted 6 months ago and wish I could go back to my old role, is this career [damaging] to ask?"
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A worker in a blue suit texts on his phone while seated in his car.
The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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