Would you take a higher level position if you don't really like it

[Anonymous]

If you had an opportunity to move up within your company (more compensation, higher title), but were not sure if you like responsibilities of the new position (more talking, meetings vs. hands on work stuff), would you do it? The higher level position seems to be fewer hours, but many people whom you respect think it is totally BS job and are wondering why it even exists.

[Anonymous]

No. Life is to short to do work you hate.

[Anonymous]

No, quality of life is too valuable for me.

[Anonymous]

Depends. Could the role lead to one you do love? Could you accept and then transfer a year later?

[Anonymous]

Depends.
Do you love what you are doing now?
Do you need more compensation?
Do you need more hours?
Would it lead to more opportunities later?

[Anonymous]

I did - and then reshapped the job.

[Anonymous]

How do you know you'll hate it if you've never done it before?

[Anonymous]

I had the same situation about a year ago and decided against it. Not only was the work less interesting (same as you--more management and less hands on) but the supervisor above my current supervisor is tough to deal with and I would report directly to that person. At least now I have a buffer between me and her. But in my case, it wasn't that much money so the monetary raise was not worth the rise in stress level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Life is to short to do work you hate.

I learned this the hard way. I took a higher position and received more money, a better title, and whole mess of crap. I ended up leaving after a year. The raise was significant, but the was certainly not worth the awful time that I endured that year.

[Anonymous]

I'm doing this now. I took a job with a huge title and salary increase. I knew going in that the work would not be what I enjoy but I also know that after another year or two here I can go anywhere and name my price. For me its worth it, but only you can decide if the juice is worth the squeeze.

[Anonymous]

Depends:

My previous employer, you couldn't pay me to go higher. I don't care if it was a GS-15 or even a SES position.

My current employer, yes but only if I could pick my own shift.

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you had an opportunity to move up within your company (more compensation, higher title), but were not sure if you like responsibilities of the new position (more talking, meetings vs. hands on work stuff), would you do it? The higher level position seems to be fewer hours, but many people whom you respect think it is totally BS job and are wondering why it even exists.

Nope, and in my old job, I refused a "promotion" because I hated the job that person was doing. I hated that he was on call 24-7 (as I was if something in my department went wrong, but he was extra on-call): the go-to person if something went wrong at any hour of any day/ weekend/ holiday with anyone that we worked with, and if a client locked his keys in his car or could not dig out of a snowbank- they called him. He did bookkeeping for various sub-companies, and I never did bookkeeping (and never wanted to). The boss was perplexed when I said I didn't want X's job, for an extra $5-10k/ year, at all.