Receiving a Promotion? Avoid These 4 Classical Traps

Congratulations! A promotion is not just a great feeling, it brings with it a world of responsibilities and a feeling of stepping higher on the success ladder. Take the weekend off and spend it with family and friends.  After all, you deserve it — for committing long hours into the night.

Post the celebrations, there are certain things to consider. We don’t mean to say that a promotion has negative factors tied to it but a promotion usually comes with a heightened sense of arrogance that you are now better than most of your co-workers. In this guide, we will help you avoid classic traps when receiving a promotion.

A Promotion Should Be a Stepping Stone for Your Career Not Your Bank Account

Measure the promotion’s perks and determine to see if it aligns with the goals that you set out to achieve. Understand the obstacles that your new role brings before you identify with the positive perks. Ask yourself the following questions —

• Does the promotion distract me from my long-term goals?
• Will the promotion help me gain new skills?
• Is the promotion aligned with my interests?

Now, you begin to realize the shortcomings that come with a promotion. Carlota Zimmerman suggests “Ideally, a person receiving a promotion can articulate their long-term career goals, and thus can view the promotion, and its attached gifts, in light of their goals,”.

Carlota stresses that while the job promotion may highlight a better state of living due to an increased paycheck at the end of the month, and a higher title, not aligning with your career interests can make the job itself less interesting in the long run.

Here’s Glenn Weissinger offering valuable advice on how promotion can be a trap.

How to Stay Clear of These 4 Predictable Traps After a Promotion

Not Having to Take Up Any Old Responsibilities

Most employees assume that with a promotion their old duties are automatically forgotten, and they get to enjoy a better pay. Usually, a promotion means added responsibility, your old duties will play a role in shaping your new one. The work efforts will be doubled and there will be increased reliability from your managers on you.

So, before you take a breather, it’s important to assess the additionalresponsibilities that the promotion adds to your career. From there, setup a new work ethic to follow. Suppose you’ve been promoted to a manager from an associate. Your responsibilities may include training new associates that join the company, and this requires you to fulfill the role of a manager along with your associate duties.

Considering a Job Change — Thanks To the Wonderful Offers Pouring In

The moment you change your designation status on your socialmedia profile to your new position, you are bound to receive attractive salaries from recruiters asking you to jump ship. You were given this position by your leaders to exceed their expectations and to make them proud. If you were to take the chance to switch jobs right after a promotion. You wouldn’t receive a recommendation letter.  When the hiring company investigates you with your former bosses, they are bound to give a scathing review.

A promotion is a way your seniors show their respect for your work. Don’t waste this precious opportunity by proving them wrong. Ignore all job prospects until you can fulfill your job role and if you still feel like making a change for greener pastures, do so after completing a major project for your company. This is to show your gratitude to your senior members for trusting you in your abilities.

“I am the King of the World” Mindset

A leading survey demonstrates that employees who’ve received a promotion are often victims of arrogance and narcissism. What this means is once you’ve landed the promotion, you tend to gain a superiority complex over your co-workers due to your current position.

You feel that just by being promoted you have power over all your junior colleagues and that you can abuse this power as you see fit. Unfortunately, a promotion doesn’t automatically transfer power into your hands. You are still very much the same employee in the company.  And during the first few weeks of your new job designation, you are closely observed by your superiors. In this time, if they find you lacking in your objectives, you can very well be demoted or worse — fired from your position.

Tips to be a great employee after a promotion —

• Offer gratitude to your co-workers for helping you get to your new position
• Provide words of motivation to your junior employees by providing them with advice on how you managed to land a promotion
• Encourage your colleagues and always be there for them when they need your help

Hitting the Town on a Luxurious Spending Spree

Many of us tend to create a saving plan when we first start off in our careers.  But after a promotion, we tend to lose track of this long-term plan.  We begin to splurge all the money on extravagant luxuries across town. We buy expensive gadgets and tend to override our credit cards as we now know that we can afford all the good things that life has to offer due to a promotion.

Here’s where things get ugly.  You haven’t received your first paycheck, so this doesn’t automatically mean the money is in your bank. The first month is crucial to prove to your seniors that you indeed deserved the promotion on the off chance you get demoted, you could end up with a sizeable debt that you are unable to pay while retaining your old position and salary.

Tips on how to plan your expenditure after a raise —

• It’s alright to throw a party to your friends and family but write down a budget
• Don’t overspend due to a better salary, saving your money is a better option that can help at a critical time such as being unemployed
• A promotion doesn’t necessarily mean a change in your remuneration. You could still be paid the same amount if you don’t discuss perks with your boss. So, before you celebrate, find out your CTC

Final Words

Gina Marotta, a career and business coach, states

“A company asking someone to take on additional responsibilities must also offer corresponding additional benefits.”

 Any organization must balance the stress of the work with appropriate perks such as increased salary and better vacation leave for the employee in question. In the end, an employee should be honored with benefits for the long work hours that they put in aside from the promotion alone.

This guest post was authored by Martin Luenendonk