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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]…

We're in our early 40s with young kids. My spouse has been an SES for about 5 years, and I was recently asked by leadership if I might want to make the jump to SES. …

Try to make it clear that it might be the right job, but maybe just not the right time.  Don't close the door if you'd want that opportunity 5 years from now.  [/quote]

You’re young so this last point maybe the most important. I’ve been a GS15 for almost 15 years and am mid-50s now. We have about two dozen people like me in our division. At a meeting about staffing this morning someone brought up the lack of SES opportunities. Leadership responded that someone would probably retire in the next five years and so there’d be one spot. We looked at each other and someone said “but half of us are eligible to retire by then as well, so you’re saying there’s no path to move up left in our careers.”

A reason to consider this opportunity is that it can be worse to stagnate than to be challenged. [/quote]

Is it so terrible to stagnate though? You have a challenging, rewarding job with flexibility and seniority. I know so many 15s in this position. What is the harm in being satisfied with what you have? I struggle with this too but I also work to live no live to work and have to remind myself of that[/quote]

PP. a fair question, and the answer is “it depends”. Where I am it took most of us years of sustained high levels of effort to get the positions we’re in, and yes, it’s great to be a non supervisory GS15. But the characteristics that got us where we are doesn’t let us sit on our laurels for twenty years. [/quote]

But the reality is that everyone has to top out on their career somewhere. As you move up the ladder there are fewer spots so naturally everyone can't get the promotion. In your division of two dozen nonsupervisory 15s, the vast majority of you were never going to be SES. There has effectively never a path to move beyond where you are now, at least not within your division. That writing has always been on the wall, even if you didn't realize it. Plus a SES job is just another place to go and plateau without a clear path for advancement beyond that position. Accepting that your career will likely stagnate somewhere is just accepting reality. [/quote]

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