Should You Take the Promotion? 4 Clarity Questions to Ask First

The Promotion Trap (And How to Avoid It)

 You were ready to quit, then a promotion showed up. Before you say yes, these 4 clarity questions might just save you from burnout or regret.

Should I Take the Promotion?

You’ve been dreaming of leaving your role for months, maybe even years. You’ve quietly scoped out other paths, mentally rehearsed your resignation, and started imagining a life that feels more aligned. Then, just as you're preparing to pivot, it arrives: the promotion.

More money. More status. Maybe even a nicer office. And suddenly, instead of clarity, you’re caught in a quiet storm of doubt. Should you take the promotion—or pause?

This episode of Joy at Work unpacks that very moment—the one where a tempting offer lands right when you were thinking of walking away. Drawing on real stories and psychological insight, we explore how to make career decisions that prioritise your wellbeing, not just your wallet.

Should I Take the Promotion If I’m Planning to Leave?

Lucia Knight, founder of Midlife Unstuck, shares the story of Karen, a gifted teacher who instinctively said yes to a promotion that looked right on paper—but felt wrong in practice. The result? A role steeped in her kryptonite: politics, budgets, bureaucracy.

Karen didn’t fail. She was simply operating in the wrong environment—one that drained rather than energised her. And like so many midlife professionals, she paid the price with her wellbeing.

👉 Read Karen’s full story here

4 Clarity Questions to Ask Before Saying Yes

If you’re facing a similar fork in the road and wondering, “Should I take the promotion?”, consider these four questions before you say yes:

1. What’s the real financial difference—after tax?
   Headlines deceive. Know your actual take-home difference and ask whether that amount will fund something truly meaningful.

2. Will you be using your superpowers at least 50% of the time?
   If the new role pulls you further away from your energising strengths, proceed with caution. Under 20%? Run.

3. What does success look like to them—and do you care?
   Whose expectations will you be measured against? And are those outcomes ones you believe in?

4. What does success look like in your real life?
   Will this role fuel the kind of life you want to live outside of work, or will it cost you too much?

Promotions Are Not Always Progress

Too often, we treat promotions as obvious upgrades. But career growth isn’t always about climbing—it’s about aligning. A bold yes should be exciting, not exhausting.

“Doing one job brilliantly has zero correlation to whether you’ll thrive in the promoted role.”

So before you accept, ask yourself: are you climbing the right ladder—or just reaching for the next rung out of habit? Saying yes to a promotion without reflection can lead to regret, especially in midlife when clarity matters most.

Ready to Redesign Instead?

If the answer isn’t clear—or worse, if it’s clearly a no—you’re not failing. You’re filtering. And that’s a powerful place to begin.

Inside The Fierce Emporium, we help midlife professionals redesign their careers around who they are now, not who they were 20 years ago. It’s work that’s psychologically anchored, creatively liberating, and deeply practical.

👉 Learn more: https://www.midlifeunstuck.com/the-fierce-emporium

• Read Transcript

  This is the Joy At Work podcast, and I'm your host, Lucia Knight.

  Here's our listener question from this week.

  [00:00:08] Listener dilemma: Offered a promotion while planning to leave

  So I've been thinking about leaving my industry for a few years now, but I haven't actually done anything about it. And now I've just been offered a promotion. It's one of those roles that would probably lock me in for a few more years, minimum. The pay bump is really tempting, but I'm torn. What would you do if you were in my shoes? 

  [00:00:35] Why this decision isn't a simple yes or no

  I wish more people did. What our listener has done, they've paused to create time to ponder, not just for 60 seconds while brushing their teeth, but to really think about the big picture and what's next beyond the very near future. Because the should I take this promotion question requires more than just a simple yes or no answer.

  I see so many. Treat it like a simple question, and therein lies the danger.

  [00:01:08] Karen's story: A role that looked right but felt wrong

  In my book exchange, how to Torch Your Work Treadmill. On page 47, you'll read the story of Karen, a brilliant teacher with a lot to teach us, not just in the classroom, but about navigating big work life decisions. She was a great teacher. Every day, Karen used her superpowers to help children thrive. So when the chance came to step up as deputy head, she said yes, almost instinctively.

  It felt like a natural progression, an exciting sprint into something new, a leveling up of sorts, taking on more responsibility to shape the children's years, not just one class at a time. Of course, there was the usual flatter of human doubt. I hope I can do this well, but mostly she felt ready.

  And she thrived in that number two position. She focused on the work that mattered most to her being present with the kids, supporting their learning, shaping, and planning out their growth. She left the politics to someone else. Someone better suited to that side of school leadership. Naturally, word got around as it does when others notice us thriving.

  She was offered another promotion this time to head teacher at a new school, and here's where it got tricky. Instinctively she didn't want it, but the chorus around her grew loud. You, you should do it. You're perfect for it. They need you. We need you. You have to say yes. It sounded like encouragement, but it veered into something more insidious.

  It felt like persuasive pressure disguised as support the kind that sounds flattering, but actually dismisses what you want, because often these people aren't thinking about whether it's right for you. They're thinking about how you might be the solution to their problem.

  In the end, she said yes and accepted the promotion. Six months in, she resigned. But this isn't a story about quitting. It's a story about what happens before the quitting. During those six months, she was working in an environment completely misaligned with her superpowers. In fact, she was knee deep in her kryptonite, politics, presentations, budgets, bureaucracy, everything that made her feel like she was being dismantled brick by brick meeting by meeting.

  And she wasn't failing. She was simply playing in entirely the wrong game for her.

  And eventually, of course, Karen crumbled. She retreated to her attic bedroom for a month. Her wonderful husband, Julian, brought her hugs and cups of tea quietly holding space while she recovered and then tried to rebuild herself. Her passion had been drained. Her gifts, those real rare, radiant gifts were going unused, underappreciated, and worse un mist.

  She did recover. Slowly, but she never went back to education, and that's a huge loss. Not just hers, but ours. Our education system lost a powerful, talented force for good and all because she said yes to a job that didn't suit her. There comes a iron ever moment for all of us when our work isn't right for us, when the status quo is no longer acceptable. And one of the major reasons I start at Midlife Unstuck was to help people notice that moment long before they've retreated to their own version of their attic bedroom, to eroded, to even stand up.

  [00:05:22] 4 Clarity Questions to ask before saying yes

  Our listener asked what I do in their situation as they described it, where a promotion is offered in a company and industry they no longer want to be in. Here are the questions I'd asked myself before I said yes or no.

  [00:05:40] What’s the real financial gain after tax?

  Number one, what's the real financial difference after tax? You'd be surprised how many people don't calculate this before they agree to a new role.

  Know the actual numbers, not the headline salary, the monthly difference in your pocket, and decide what you might do with those extra funds. Is there a big piece of life fund that you could fund, or is it just another flat white per day?

  This makes a difference to how you respond to an important secondary question. Is it worth it?

  [00:06:15] Will you use your superpowers at least 50% of the time?

  Number two, how much of your time in your new role will you be using your unique superpowers? Just in case you've not heard me speak about superpowers before, they are the four activities that you can do easily speedily, lightly, and better than most people you know.

  These are the four things that make you stand out from a crowd, allow you to thrive and to have enough energy when you go home to invest your remaining waking hours having fun with loved ones.

  So to our listener, based on what you know of the role, guesstimate, how much time you'll be using your four superpowers. In your current role versus the new one? If you don't know, ask more questions. If you can't see yourself using your superpowers, at least 50% of the time, proceed with caution. And if it's under 20%, just say no. Say no. While you are sprinting for the hills.

  Even if you decide to stay in your current role. This is the perfect time to start building a new career strategy based on who you are and what energizes you. This in my research, is the most powerful predictor of real satisfaction at work. The ability to use your superpowers regularly. Once in a blue moon, that's a fast track to burnout and regret.

  [00:07:41] What does success look like to them?

  Question number three, what does success look like in this new role? Whose expectations will you be measured by? And are the expectations clear, achievable, and meaningful to you? Do you care about the outcomes you'll be responsible for? And of course, do you have the resources, support, and freedom to get there?

  Once you know what success looks like for them in this role, you'll be able to decide if that's worth investing your precious hours making happen.

  [00:08:16] What does success look like to you?

  Number four. What does success in your life, your real life look like over the next two years? Now let's tackle an even more important idea around success, life success. Any new role requires investments, and every investment has a cost attached to it.

  So first of all, do you have the capacity to take on more at work?

  Do you have capacity to learn the extra things you'll need to learn to invest in the new relationships or existing relationships in new ways?

  Will the extra income fund experiences that light you up in real life? What different or extra support will you need at home if you say yes to the new role? And does that change or impact the support others there need from you?

  How does this new role contribute to your long-term career and long-term work life happiness? Are you climbing an exciting goal or just the next rung on a ladder you've already decided isn't the right ladder for you?

  What I've seen over the course of my 19 years in headhunting and managing all sorts of teams in multiple locations in two continents is that doing one job brilliantly has zero correlation to whether you'll thrive in the promoted role, and that's why this level of reflection matters so that when you do say yes.

  [00:09:53] How the Fierce Emporium helps you redesign your path

  You are sprinting towards something that will enhance your life, not keep it stuck or worse eroded. And if this role is not right, that's not failure. That's just a strategic decision to focus your precious life moments at work elsewhere. So it might be time to redesign the path ahead, to step off the current work treadmill, and walk towards something wiser, more exciting, more fulfilling, and potentially more joy filled.

  You deserve to earn well and you deserve a promotion that makes sure it's the right role you want to do and the right role to take you to where you want to go in your real life. Figuring out where you want to go and why, now that's the hard work and that's the fierce work, and that's exactly the work we do in the Fierce Emporium Program.

  I'll include a link with details on it in the show notes.

  At a certain point in your career, just another job starts to feel well exactly like that. Just another job. Frankly, if there is a choice, we're all too old for that. But when you pause deliberately to actually do the work of aligning your next role with who you are now and who you want to be in the next decade, not who you were 10 or 20 years ago, things begin to shift.

  [00:11:19] A bold yes feels different when it truly fits

  Suddenly your work life gets clearer. Not necessarily easier, sorry. But definitely more deliberate and when your next move isn't about just making a move, but about stepping into a life that fits. Really fits. You start to see the kind of opportunities that make you want to say a bold, unapologetic yes.

  You say yes to work that energizes instead of drains you, you say yes to growth that actually excites you. You say yes to a version of success that feels like you, and that sounds a lot like joy at work to me.