Promotion Is Bad For You

I used to have a high-powered, corporate executive neighbor living next door. He was the sort who donned an expensive and perfectly tailored Brook Brothers suit to work each day, lived in this beautiful estate in the suburbs, drove a fast car, vacationed in hot destinations each year, and looked every inch the important guy that he is. Gossip had it that he earned such a substantial sum; a gossip which later evolved into an unquestionable fact after having been confirmed by his wife, no less. He was, in short, a guy people admired and wished to emulate. The sort of guy I wanted to become someday. Except that, of course, I'm not a guy and never will be; but still, understandably, I wanted to achieve what he essentially had.

So it came as quite a surprise to learn, on one occasion and from his own gossip-confirming wife, that he wanted to quit his work. His employer didn't want him to, so it was his own personal decision. Everyone who was privy to his life was, as a consequence and rightly so, bewildered; that included me. Quit his work? How could he? His work, the proverbial hen that laid him golden eggs, provided him the means to be important, not to mention the luxuries he enjoyed in life. But as the wife had it, he was just too tired of his stressful work that even the financial gain and status it provided him with weren't enticements enough. So, to cut the story short, he did proceed to quit his work and live a simpler life.
I didn't understand it then, being of a young and impressionable age that I was. And I slowly forgot about that incident as my family and I moved from one place to another. As I grew up, though, and began to immerse myself in a corporate world of my own and feel the effects of a stressful job, I started to remember my neighbor and wonder if maybe he had, in fact, a sensible reason to quit a high-paying career.

That introspection was bolstered when I read this article. According to it, recent study shows that promotion is bad for us. A bit surprising, I should say, considering the widely held conception that better job status should lead to better health because of increased sense of self-worth or esteem. At any rate, the study further showed that there has been "no evidence of improved physical health after promotion". Worse, it showed that "people thrust into more senior jobs suffered significantly greater mental strain" and "that the mental health of managers typically deteriorates after a job promotion, and in a way that goes beyond merely a short-term change".

This study may satisfyingly explain my former neighbor's odd behavior. And given my own recent experiences, I am inclined to believe so.

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