Why It’s Not Such A Good Thing To Be Quietly Promoted

Picture this: you’re doing really well at work, performing brilliantly, and your boss is really happy with your output. So happy, in fact, that they ask you to step up. You’re delighted––this is evidence that your career is on track and you’re progressing in your chosen field.

As everyone knows, promotions are hard to come by. Depending on the size of the company you work at, there may be no formal advancement track to take, and it can take a long time to move up into a more challenging role.

Having your manager have your back is vital too. Lack of acknowledgement, feedback and support from bosses can be so detrimental that according to research from Gallup, 50% of employees actually leave their companies because of their boss.

So when you do get that promotion, it’s a great thing, offering a host of attractive benefits: a better job title to add to your CV, and more responsibilities with interesting potential. You’ll also get the chance to step up and grow your skills, and, of course, earn some more money.

Increased workload

But what if your promotion turns out to be a “quiet promotion”? This is when you’re being asked to take on more responsibilities––for example managing a team––without any more money or a title change.

Quiet promotions are so commonplace that a recent survey found that 78% of people have experienced increased workload without being given any additional money, and 67% have taken on the work of a colleague after they have left. Fifty seven percent of people say this practice makes them feel taken advantage of.

There are a few ways a quiet promotion can happen. You might be asked to shoulder additional project responsibilities, and they don’t get taken back. Or, you may be given a trial period to see if you’re ready for a promotion. During this time you’re likely to do additional work––but you probably won’t be paid more. It’s also common to take on another colleague’s tasks during an extended leave period, such as maternity cover.

Scope of work

Quiet promotions often creep up on us. If you examine your job now, compared to your tasks and responsibilities a year ago, you may find that your scope of work has expanded dramatically.

The first step to turning a quiet promotion into a real one (with more money!) is to ask your manager for a meeting, referencing your original job spec.

Point out how your role has changed, and explain how you are now doing many more tasks.  This should help to open up a conversation about compensation and titles. Setting a timeframe by which you expect to see concrete changes should also be discussed: it could be that additional budget has to be found.

If this approach doesn’t work, it could be time to look for a new role with better conditions. Below are three current opportunities to explore, and there are hundreds more to discover on the TechWire Asia Job Board.

Java Programmer – Sydney, Macquarie Group Limited, Sydney

Macquarie’s Futures business primarily focuses on ETDs (Exchange Traded Derivatives) in the APAC, European and America regions, and the Java Programmer will join the Futures development team in Sydney. You will be an exceptional Java programmer, excelling at coding, problem solving and effective delivery. You will work with front and middle office stakeholders to analyze existing programs or formulate logic for new systems, devise logic procedures, and develop conversion and system implementation plans. You’ll need very strong problem solving and troubleshooting skills and experience, strong SQL, communications, delivery and client service skills and familiarity with RESTful JSON web services. Get the full brief here.

Director, Platform Management, Adobe, San Jose

Changing the world through digital experiences is what Adobe’s all about. As the Director, Platform Management, you will lead overall product management for Adobe’s website, Experience League. You’ll partner with relevant teams, to achieve Adobe’s strategic objectives for the site and work across the business to define its vision and strategic objectives, leveraging insights from opportunity assessments, competitive analyses, stakeholder interviews, customer needs, and data insights. To succeed, you will need 10 or more years’ experience with a focus on product management as well as experience leading teams in an agile software development environment. Apply for this position here.

Senior Software Engineer – Platform as a Service, Bloomberg, New York

Bloomberg’s Media Infrastructure team is responsible for orchestrating and automating infrastructure and operational workflows and is the center of excellence for all things infrastructure within Bloomberg Media. The Senior Software Engineer – Platform as a Service will develop on and expand Bloomberg’s internal PaaS product used to manage and deploy hundreds of application environments and dozens of clusters across private and public cloud. You’ll also build tools and processes to automate operational tasks allowing teams to manage more applications with less effort. To apply, you will need to have two years’ experience working on highly available, fault-tolerant distributed systems, two years’ experience with Ruby, Javascript, Java or Python, and experience with front end frameworks like React.js and Vue.js. Interested? Find out more here.

Elevate your career to the next level––browse thousands of opportunities on the Techwire Asia Job Board here

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