"Team Leader? No Thanks"…The True Feelings of Those Who Reject Promotion [Youth Report]

'Intentional Unboxing' Trend Spreads
Tendency to Avoid Middle Management Promotions
Work-Life Balance Gains Importance Unlike in the Past

Among Generation Z in the UK, the trend of 'conscious unbossing' is spreading. This refers to the tendency to avoid promotion to middle management positions. Unlike the past atmosphere where rapid promotion was desired, the recent emphasis on work-life balance (WLB) has led to an increased desire to be promoted more slowly. Additionally, since financial rewards are often minimal even when promoted, some prefer to delay promotion as much as possible.

Generation Z avoiding promotion... "High stress but low rewards"

[Image source=Pixabay]

Last month, global recruitment consulting firm Robert Walters conducted a survey on promotions focusing on Generation Z in the UK, revealing that 52% of Gen Z respondents did not want middle management positions. Among them, 69% perceived middle managers as "high stress but low reward." Furthermore, 36% of respondents said, "I do not want to be a middle manager, but expect to be promoted at some point due to my career," while 16% said, "I want to completely avoid being a middle manager."

Lucy Bissett, Director at Robert Walters, stated, "Generation Z prefers to spend their time fully focusing on projects themselves rather than managing other employees." She added, "Those promoted to middle management experience a sharp increase in workload and continuous pressure to meet higher expectations and targets." She further noted, "However, this reluctance to take on middle management roles could become a problem for employers later on."

This phenomenon can be seen in the same context as 'quiet quitting,' where employees do the minimum work required and lack the willingness to contribute to the company. 'Quiet quitting' became a buzzword after a video posted on TikTok by Zaid Flynn, a 20-something engineer living in New York in 2022, went viral. In the video, Flynn said, "Work is not life. Your value is not defined by the work you do." In other words, 'quiet quitting' emphasizes not sacrificing life for work and maintaining a psychological distance from work. It is closer in meaning to "stopping investing passion in work" rather than "quitting work."

Same in Korea... Over half of MZ employees have no intention of executive promotion

The domestic situation is not much different from overseas. Among the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), the tendency to refuse promotion is prominent. In a survey conducted last year by the employment platform JobKorea targeting 1,114 MZ generation employees, 54.8% of respondents said they had no intention of being promoted to executive positions.

The main reason for not wanting promotion was "the burden of being in a position with responsibility," accounting for 43.6% of the total. This was followed by ▲"Executive promotion seems realistically difficult" (20.0%), ▲"Executives likely cannot maintain work-life balance" (13.3%), ▲"No desire to become an executive" (11.1%), and ▲"Do not want to work at the company for a long time" (9.8%). This appears to be related to an increasing number of people who prefer to work steadily and securely until retirement rather than seeking high salaries and rapid promotion.

In fact, recently, the labor sector has seen movements to introduce a 'right to refuse promotion' along with demands for extending retirement age. The HD Hyundai Heavy Industries labor union also included the right to refuse promotion in this year's wage and collective bargaining negotiations. The production worker ranks at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries are structured in eight levels: Grade 7 to 4 (14 years) - Giwon (6 years) - Gijang (6 years) - Gigam (6 years) - Gijeong (no time limit), while office workers have three levels: Manager (4 years) - Senior Manager (4 years) - Responsible Manager (no time limit).

For production workers, automatic union withdrawal occurs upon promotion from Gijang to Gigam or higher, and for office workers, from Senior Manager to Responsible Manager or higher. The union is requesting the right to refuse promotion at these points. This reflects the employees' preference to enjoy stable benefits as union members rather than seeking rapid promotion.