Cheers For The Yeoman Who Doesn’t Only Seek Promotion

Back before I semi-retired and became a highly paid professional blogger, I was a pretty highly paid manager.  I was head of a large office at my agency with over 70 employees working for me and a huge budget.

I managed massive projects that were crucial to my agencies future.  It was stressful, unfulfilling, and full of B.S., so I gave it up. 

To get to that position I obviously worked hard for years and had some level of ambition to move up.  But I was never what I’d define as a “ladder climber”.  Those are people who’s sole focus is to get the next promotion or raise. 

I simply worked my ass off and if the promotion opportunities came, then great.  I actually turned a few down, which baffled some of my ladder climber colleagues.

 

The Yeoman

While I was an office chief I had an employee named Jason.  Jason was really good at what he did.  Not the absolute best, but definitely top 20%. 

He was smart, hard working, reliable, and always finished things.  Jason was a yeoman.  What is that?  The word yeoman has many meanings depending on context, and the one I’m referring to here is:

one that performs great and loyal service

That’s the noun definition.  It can also be used as an adjective, as in “he did yeoman’s work”.  In that context the definition is

very good, hard, and valuable work that someone does especially to support a cause, to help a team 

You get the point.  Jason was a classic yeoman, and did yeoman’s work. 

The thing is, he had been doing yeoman’s work for 24 years at our agency.  And in the 3 years that he worked for me my supervisors were constantly trying to get him to move up to a supervisory position.

Jason wanted none of it.

 

It Takes All Types

Societal pressures, especially in America, push us toward constant achievement.  If you’re not moving up, you’re stagnant.  Or lazy. 

But is it good to move up for the sake of it?

When you see a job or promotion opportunity it’s important to distinguish between “can I do it?”  and “do I want to do it?”.  Those two things can be deceptively difficult to separate, especially when you’re surrounded by the momentum of colleagues, friends, and cultural expectations.

Jason could clearly do the job of a supervisor, the job that his supervisors kept poking him to pursue.  But he wasn’t biting. 

He didn’t elaborate on the reasons for his disinterest.  I suspect it was a combination of the fact that he was an introvert and was perfectly content in the contributions he was already making. 

There’s wisdom in “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” 

And there’s tremendous value in simply showing up and doing a good job every day, without the pursuit of advancement.

 

Anti-Ambition

In the end we need Jasons.  He and others like him made my office run and without them I’d have been screwed. 

My agency is chock full of folks in their late 50’s and 60’s who are still mid-level employees.  Some might be lazy or coasting, but most do a good job.  A few might eventually change their tune and seek a promotion, but most won’t and that’s okay. 

They don’t want to play the ego-driven games of one-upsmanship that constitute the climb up the corporate ladder.  Can you blame them? 

And they also serve a valuable role by bringing their experience and wisdom to younger employees who are just starting out.  Many of those younger folks will seek to climb the ladder, and that’s okay.  But they’ll no doubt learn a lot from veterans who’ve been around the block a few times.

In the end I think Jason was probably more self-aware than me and most of my manager colleagues.  Over his career he was clearly observing our organizational behavior and the endless political nonsense and bureaucratic buffoonery that managers had to deal with. 

He saw their stress and unhappiness, how their lives were unbalanced.  And he chose to stay a yeoman. 

As I look back now I think he chose well.  And if I had it to do over again I’d definitely consider taking that path. 

So to all those out there making things run by showing up and doing the work without constantly seeking the next rung on the ladder, I salute you.

Your Turn – Have you worked with yeoman who do a great job and don’t seek promotion?  Are you one of these crucial folks yourself?  Chime in below!