Anonymous wrote:If you don’t want to be a manager, the half wit Joe will get promoted and his insecure ass will make you miserable. Better yet, half wit Joe will even PIP you to prove a point.

This. Better to be a manager than to be managed by an idiot.

Anonymous wrote:I agree that most people don't want to be managers and aren't cut out for it. But most employers are structured like a pyramid: up or out. If you want a raise, the only positions that pay more are management. If you don't want a raise, then these days they figure they could probably pay a new grad to do it for less than they're paying you.

If you've got an employer who will give you a modest COL raise for the same good work you did last year, that's awesome and you should know you are lucky.

The 35 year old managers do not want to hire a 55 year old expert, they think said expert will just leave soon for a true management position.

Who are these managers who aren't also technical experts doing the same work as their direct reports? I need to get one of those gigs. I constantly hear about managers only signing time sheets and performance evaluations. Sigh.

I'm a millennial and became a manager because I wanted to run my own program. I got sick of managers who didn't know as much as me telling me what to do. If you have a great manager though, there's no reason to keep climbing the ladder. Being a manager is the worst. You can have one poor performer who takes up 30 hours a week of your time, and that becomes your life for a while.

If you don’t want to be a manager, the half wit Joe will get promoted and his insecure ass will make you miserable. Better yet, half wit Joe will even PIP you to prove a point.

I’m late gen x and have never had the desire or wanted to be a manager. I know that stalled my career. I just wanted to be really good and work my job.

Lots of jobs have WLB, including jobs that older people are doing. It's not like everyone over 50 has a big job. The issue is that you also want a 'good living' and 'meaningful work', and you probably define those in a way that excludes most jobs.

If the kind of job you want is the kind of job that a lot of other people also want, you are going to have to compete for it in some way, and unless you are unusually brilliant or well-connected or something else, one of the ways you will have to compete for it is with your time.

Many places eventually diverge into two career tracks: technical and managerial (administrative).

Yes, this happened to my DH. He is in middle management now and hates it. The problem is that there's no way to increase your income without going into management. In theory he could have stayed an individual contributor, but then he'd still be making 80-90k as a 50 years old. In DC, with kids, that's a tough situation. He makes twice that but hates his job. Our goal right now is early retirement via a FIRE lite approach from this job and then he can go do what he actually wants.

I actually like managing so this isn't an issue for me. I like the logistics of it -- project schedules, tracking progress, figuring out how to prioritize, distribute resources, and find efficiencies. I also actively like training and mentoring people. That's my jam. But I get not everyone feels that way. Someone has to do it though.

I enjoy the training ans the budget monitoring and coordinating with others but a lot of employees don't want to learn or be managed and generally the people who are in management don't know what they are doing. So I just tend to prefer working with the people who want to be there and actually make an impact on the project and are easy to get along with.

I got a chuckle out of "Boomers, Gen X and Millennials." That's the majority of workers.

I agree that most people don't want to be managers and aren't cut out for it. But most employers are structured like a pyramid: up or out. If you want a raise, the only positions that pay more are management. If you don't want a raise, then these days they figure they could probably pay a new grad to do it for less than they're paying you.

If you've got an employer who will give you a modest COL raise for the same good work you did last year, that's awesome and you should know you are lucky.

Same here. The last thing that I want is to be looking at spreadsheets and calendars all day and asking people when work is going to get done so I can relay it to the executive team. That's not creative in any way.

Most people who want to be managers are not the best employees.

I find this has been a huge problem for many, many people I know, including myself. It’s frustrating that the only way to climb the ladder is to stop doing the actual work you like and are great at and instead start managing people and bringing in business when nobody has even trained you in those things and you hate it. I have stalled my career because I want to continue doing the actual work and not spend my time reviewing smart goals, budgets, managing junior employees who I never would’ve hired myself in the first place.

There seems to be an obsession with the grind among Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials. Since when did enjoying life and having a decent career without wanting to manage people become something that's viewed negatively?
Some people are perfectly happy being individual contributors, doing meaningful work, earning a good living, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Not everyone measures success by climbing the management ladder.