The desire to climb ever higher leads to things like the Peter Principle. There’s something to be said for “I’m fine right here.”

In my corporation the standing rule is that above a certain level, you must seek advancement or else you’ll be terminated. It’s never been enforced as far as I know, which is good because it’s BS when applied to specialists like product engineers. If all your good engineers are promoted out to management jobs (which is the only upward path from here), you don’t have anybody left to design your new products. I know part of being a professional is to train your successor, but the corporation’s “cut costs to the bone, and then cut some more” philosophy means everybody is too busy with their own projects to cross train on someone else’s. So the “advance or adios” policy is just lip service to something that only sounded good in some management guru’s book in the first place.

Dave