In the corporate world, climbing the ladder has traditionally been seen as the ultimate goal. However, a growing number of young professionals are rejecting promotions in favor of work-life balance and personal priorities.

In 2024, Amsterdam-based staffing firm Randstad’s annual Workmonitor report revealed that 39 percent of workers are uninterested in promotions, while 42 percent said they would turn down a promotion altogether.

For 25-year-old Emma*, the decision to forgo promotions is a deliberate and deeply personal one.

“A short answer would be because of my life priorities. There’s more to life than work, especially how a lot of jobs are subjecting employees into bad working conditions,” Emma told Newsweek.

Despite being relatively early in her career, she has already developed a pragmatic view of work. Emma sees her job strictly as a source of income rather than a defining part of her identity. She believes that unless a promotion offers a significant salary increase and genuine happiness, it is not worth the additional stress and responsibility.

A key reason why younger employees like Emma are turning down promotions is the trade-off between additional responsibilities and what she describes as “marginal gains.” When the extra workload comes without significant financial compensation, younger people are less likely to jump at the opportunity.

“I’ve reached a point wherein I just treat my job as a source of income, nothing more, nothing less, just like how employees are seen as numbers by upper management,” Emma explained.

Emma’s concerns echo a wider sentiment among Gen Z workers who feel little loyalty toward employers who, in their view, see them as expendable. She argued that with the rise of artificial intelligence and remote work, an employee-employer relationship is more fractured than ever.

“Definitely, younger people like me are starting to turn down promotions because companies are not truly loyal to their employees. We are replaceable. With the advent of AI, this disconnect will eventually be more apparent. Employers and employees will eventually drift apart due to clashing interests,” she said.

“We’re seeing a major inflection point for what a career means, and it’s showing up among younger employees in a major way,” Rita McGrath, a Columbia Business School Professor and CEO advisor to Fortune 500 companies told Newsweek.

Whereas in the past employees would often stay in one company and climb the ladder, McGrath explained that younger people are changing the way they build a career.

“Portfolio careers, side hustles, gig work and many alternative forms of making a living all offer things that many workers find highly motivational,” she explained. “And increasingly, jobs in management are seen as unrewarding, stressful and unfulfilling for many.

“For boomers, companies offered the prospect that accepting the next promotion was a guarantee of a bright future. Increasingly that bargain no longer exists. As I like to say, companies have done a terrific job of teaching their people that there is no such thing as loyalty, and now employees are returning the favor.”

Ultimately, Emma believes that career decisions should be based on personal fulfillment rather than societal expectations. “My overarching opinion would be that people should turn down things that do not make their lives better,” she said. “If a promotion would hamper personal ties with family and friends by missing out on events and by drastically changing how they manage their 24 hours, then people should turn down the promotion. After all, we work to live and not the other way around.”

*Name has been changed for privacy.