"I don't want to live like my boss" — employee turns down promotion as the 'forever assistant manager' dream takes hold [Manager Kim vs. Employee Lee]

[The Financial News] "Lee, you're up for promotion to manager this time, right? How about we get together this weekend and prepare your performance review?"
On Saturday morning, Manager Kim (49) from the sales team made this encouraging suggestion. Employee Lee (28) gave an unexpected reply.
"Thank you for looking out for me, sir, but I’d like to be excluded from the promotion list this time. Staying on as an assistant manager suits the balance of my life much better."
Kim could hardly believe his ears. For him, promotion was synonymous with survival and the only yardstick that proved his value within the organization.
For Lee, however, promotion is nothing more than the start of an "asymmetry of responsibility"—a kind of shackle. On a Saturday morning that marks the start of the weekend, the decades-old formula that "promotion equals success" is rapidly breaking down among office workers in South Korea.


For Kim’s generation, promotion was a source of family pride and a "ladder" that guaranteed their old age. Watching their seniors, they ran like racehorses toward titles such as department manager and executive director.
Along the way, giving up family dinners or personal time was taken for granted as a necessary "opportunity cost." When Kim laments, "Young people these days have no ambition," it reflects the shock of seeing the loyalty he devoted to the company being dismissed.
Lee’s calculation, however, is based squarely on return on investment (ROI).
He believes that as you move up to manager and senior manager, your salary rises only slightly, while the responsibility you must shoulder, the intensity of the workload, and the fatigue from office politics all increase exponentially.
In particular, people in their 20s and 30s have watched department managers struggle in the middle—pressed from above by executives and from below by younger staff. For them, promotion is not something to aspire to but a "disaster to avoid."


This trend of "avoiding promotion" is clearly visible in the statistics.
According to a survey conducted last year by the job search platform Saramin of 1,129 office workers, 54.8% of respondents said they would be willing to refuse a promotion if the conditions were not right. Among workers in their 20s and 30s, the main reasons cited were "destruction of work–life balance" (37.1%) and "burden of increased responsibility" (32.5%).
In fact, the HD Hyundai Heavy Industries labor union formally called for recognition of the right to refuse promotion in its wage and collective bargaining negotiations with management last year, as it had in 2024.
In an era where the concept of a "job for life" no longer exists, workers place greater value on building personal expertise and securing a psychological safety buffer than on climbing the corporate ladder. Rather than getting promoted and hanging on for another five to ten years, it is now seen as a smarter survival strategy to stay at a moderate rank, maintain strong practical skills, and keep oneself in shape to change jobs at any time.


Experts in capital markets and human resources describe this as the "fragmentation of the definition of success."
A specialist in organizational culture who requested anonymity noted, "In the past, everyone followed the single success path the organization laid out—promotion. Now that there are many different ways to build wealth, the authority that comes with job titles inside a company has weakened dramatically." The expert warned, "If companies simply dismiss young people who refuse promotion as lacking passion, they will face a serious crisis in retaining key talent."
On Saturday morning, Kim clicks his tongue as he watches Lee study for a certification exam. But what Lee is studying is not a promotion test; it is video editing skills for a second career after work.
Kim dreams of reaching the top of the organizational pyramid, while Lee seeks practical freedom beyond its boundaries. Which of them is making the wiser choice in managing their life will only become clear after they retire.

jsi@fnnews.com Jeon Sang-il Reporter