Employee accepts 18k raise and promotion, quickly finds himself wishing he was back in his old job because of the increased time, stress, and responsibility: 'Now I spend 60% of my time in meetings'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Feb 5, 2026 12:00 PM EST

An employee found themselves wishing for the simplicity of their old job after accepting a promotion that saw a significant increase in compensation but also in responsibility and commitment.

As each of us has gone through our lives, we have likely found ourselves wishing for the relative simplicity of the time that has since passed. This is true for both our personal lives and our careers. When you're in your 30s and facing down a mortgage, family, and children, you'll find yourself sometimes wishing that you were going out on a Monday night to hang out at the bar with your friends like you used to in your early and mid-20s.

Starting this job, I was one of maybe two or three staff at any given time. And, as time has gone on, the site has grown around me. The internet and my responsibilities have changed dramatically in this time, and I have, at times, inevitably, found myself wishing for the simplicity of a time that has long since passed. A time when I could hole up for weeks at a time and doom post about unfiltered content, with unfettered commentary, without worrying much about the holistic structure of an organization, not caring about what anyone else was doing, where the business was coming from or headed, or much at all beyond the content that I was working on at that given time.

The thing is, while the idea of everything is nice and rosy in my rose-tinted rearview mirror, it never really was that sparkling and innocent. When I'm imagining sitting at that bar with my friends in my 20s, I have to remember that that lifestyle was quite chaotic, shambolic even, and wildly unsustainable. I felt lost, I felt unhappy, I felt like I was missing something and falling behind in a life that hadn't happened yet. I was uncertain where my life was going, and I often longed for the same sense of security and permanence I have today.

Likewise, in my work, I was stressed about content, scheduling, and deadlines, much the same as I am now. There was the same worry about the performance of the content and about not meeting my own impossibly high standards, which I conveniently forget every time I gaze into the crystal ball of the past.

It all comes back to Prudence, Courage, and Temperance, three of Plato's four cardinal virtues. (With the last being Justice.) When we learn to discern the appropriate course of action (prudence) and confront our uncertainty and fear (courage) while maintaining moderation, restraint, and self-control (temperance) We gain control over the direction of our life that we likely didn't think possible.

Change and challenge happens regardless of whether or not you accept it, and you can either white knuckle grip and try to hang onto things how they are, or you can grab a paddle and learn to go with the flow of it, how to read the river and watch for rocks and fallen trees and eddies that might otherwise cause you to spiral out of control (ok we're on a river analogy now are we) while waiting for those moments when there's a clean set of rapids that will speed you along the way.

The reality is, you need these challenges and change, too; they are part of growth, and growth quite simply can't exist without them. A longing for that simple past is your mind's longing for the comfort of familiarity. Learning to take a deep breath and let go of the white-knuckle grip on the past and present is an important skill, and understanding this makes your life all the easier.

Point being, you shouldn't just shy away from a challenge just because you're afraid of it and craving a simpler experience. But, at the same time, we won't always succeed either; failure feels like moving backward, but it's a part of moving forward.

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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.}
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.
"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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