More Work, No Reward, and What to Do About It (Issue 681)
Your boss just gave you a "dry promotion"
Have you ever received what’s known as a “dry promotion”?
You know, when your boss asks you to take on more responsibility, but without an actual promotion or even a raise?
Those are the worst, and they are becoming more common in this job market. Do you know why? Because employers think they can get away with it.
They conduct layoffs and flatten organizations.
The remaining employees absorb the workload left behind.
However, to keep costs down, no one gets a real promotion or raise.
Employees may hear vague promises of a future promotion to make things right later.
They suck it up because they know the market is terrible and worry about finding a new job.
If you receive a dry promotion, you have three choices:
Suck it up and make the best of it.
Negotiate the promotion and raise you deserve.
Quietly start looking for a better job and plan your exit.
Let me go into more detail for each of these options below.
1. Make the best of it (for now)
In a terrible job market, sometimes you have to make the best of a bad situation and ride out the storm. However, that doesn’t mean you have to suck it up and suffer. Instead, look for opportunities to set boundaries, manage your workload, and get what you want from the situation.
First, ask about the timeframe for absorbing this extra work. Is this expected to be a forever thing, which means your job will always be like this now? Or is this a temporary situation until they rebalance work across the team, hire some new employees (or contractors), etc.?
Then, have an honest conversation with your boss about your workload, what was already on your plate, and what the additional responsibilities require. Scope the additional work and expectations to get a sense of how much more it adds to your days and weeks. Don’t let them set you up for burnout!
Discuss boundaries to ensure you don’t get overworked (e.g., hours you can put in per day). It may be possible to adjust expectations to make the additional responsibilities less of a burden (e.g., moving out delivery dates, reducing scope).
But you should also establish clear priorities with your boss for what is now on your plate. Everything cannot be a “top priority”! Something has to give, and that will be the stuff at the bottom of the list.
Find ways to get what you want to make the additional responsibilities feel more acceptable. Compensation isn’t always financial. You can ask for other perks to balance the equation, such as more flexibility in your work schedule, working remote more frequently, additional vacation days, and training and development to advance your career, etc.
Also, this could be an opportunity to level up, strengthen your network, and make yourself more attractive for a later promotion, a transfer to another department, or a new job.
Note: If you can’t find ways to manage your workload and get what you want from this situation, it won’t be sustainable for very long. So, you may end up exploring option 3 later (see below).
2. Negotiate a raise or promotion
Yes, they want you to take on this additional responsibility with no extra pay and maybe not even a title change. But that doesn’t mean you can’t negotiate and try to get what you need.
During my tenure in the corporate world, I’ve watched people receive dry promotions. Some employees took on the additional work without a peep. Others said, “What’s in it for me?” Depending on their value to the org, personality, and willingness to walk away, some employees could negotiate something to make it right.
So, you certainly can use this opportunity to ask for the promotion or raise that should go along with this extra responsibility. Obviously, don’t threaten to leave if you’re not really willing to do it. Simply explain how the additional work you will do is in line with what someone at the next level would be responsible for.
If you’re successful, great! However, if they say they just can’t make it work, ask for a timeline.
If you agree to take on this additional responsibility, when are they willing to revisit the promotion conversation? This establishes a limit for how long you will put in the extra work before something needs to change.
3. Look for a better job
I always recommend that you should be looking for your next job anyway. This situation simply accelerates the timeline. Obviously, use discretion as you begin your job search. In a bad market, you don’t want to risk your employment.
The funny thing is, since you are taking on this additional responsibility and operating above your current position, you can now confidently interview for roles at that next level with other potential employers.
I call this the “Silicon Valley promotion,” and I used it every time I took a new job with a new employer. I never made a career move that didn’t give me a promotion or a big raise. It’s a great way to advance your career more quickly, especially when upward movement slows down once you’re inside a company.
Empower yourself!
We can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we react and the actions we take in response to that event.
Receiving a dry promotion sucks, but turn it to your advantage or make a plan to move on. You don’t need to put up with this forever.
➡️ Do you want to talk with me about your situation? You can always schedule a free session. No strings attached!
Larry Cornett, Ph.D., is a career coach who spent 20+ years in Silicon Valley at Apple, IBM, Yahoo, eBay, and several startups as a designer, leader, and product and design executive. Whether you're fighting for a promotion, navigating a layoff, or planning your exit to independence, he combines executive experience with psychological insight to help ambitious professionals reclaim their power and build an Invincible Career.
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