How Do You Elevate Workers Who Don’t Want to Climb the Ladder?

The prestige and pay of manager positions are enticing fewer workers, some of whom are turned off by the personal and professional downsides of leadership roles and instead are prioritizing free time, flexibility and mental health. 

For some statistical proof:

• Only 30% of individual contributors want to become people managers in the next few years — with a similar percentage saying their managers are too stressed out to support them, according to a LinkedIn survey of more than 10,000 professionals.
• 47% of top performers would decline a promotion to management, according to research from employee engagement platform Happily.ai.
• Only 6% of Generation Z workers say their primary career goal is to obtain a position in senior leadership, Deloitte uncovered in its 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey.

“The manager role isn’t particularly enticing,” said Sue Cantrell, the vice president of products and workforce strategies at Deloitte Consulting LLP. 

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Cantrell noted that in the firm’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report, 4 in 10 managers said their mental health deteriorated after taking the role.

“This highlights both a concern and an opportunity,” she said. “On one hand, fewer workers aspiring to leadership creates a gap in organizations’ talent and succession pipelines. On the other, it signals a chance to reimagine career paths and the manager role itself. As worker priorities shift, companies that design career paths to bridge this gap in their talent pipelines will be better positioned for success.”

“Employees look at their managers and often see people who are miserable. Who would want to sign up for that?”
— Allison Vaillancourt, VP and senior consultant, Segal

Why Nobody Wants to Be the Boss

Many workers today shun the management track for a variety of reasons. Happily.ai’s research found that perceived drawbacks of management roles include:

• Spending too much time in meetings and not enough time providing one-on-one coaching.
• Being held responsible for outcomes not fully within their control.
• Being asked to meet unclear expectations — and, when those expectations are unmet, receiving public blame that causes psychological harm.
• Managing large teams, often with direct reports who work remotely or across multiple corporate locations.

“Employees look at their managers and often see people who are miserable,” said Allison Vaillancourt, a vice president and senior consultant in the organizational effectiveness practice at benefits and HR consulting firm Segal. “Who would want to sign up for that?”

Reimagining the Organizational Approach

Enhanced compensation might be a traditional response to workforce situations, but the experts interviewed for this article say the complexity of this issue likely necessitates a more complex solution.

“More money may not be enough to rouse enthusiasm for the roles,” Vaillancourt said. “Many employees are looking for true opportunities to make a difference and the chance to increase personal autonomy. If that can be offered, these roles might be more appealing.”

To that end, Cantrell urged HR and total rewards professionals to offer employees personalized rewards and development opportunities. This approach, which can leverage data and technology to better understand the motivations of individuals and generations, may require the collaboration of HR, IT and organizational leadership.

Redefining the manager role as a path to positively impact the organization and make a difference — and training potential managers through leadership programs and executive coaching — may entice more employees to step into those roles.

Vaillancourt recommended these approaches:

• Learn the challenges facing leaders in your organization — and address them.
• Foster connections between supervisors so they can share ideas and offer each other support.
• Offer rewards to leaders that are both appealing and actionable. For instance, don’t just bump up their vacation days; make sure they can (and do) actually take them.
• Find ways to provide managers with autonomy, flexibility and free time.

“It’s time for organizations to highlight managers as facilitators of employee success rather than monitors of their work,” she said. “Managers have gotten a bad rap, and that makes filling these roles increasingly challenging.”

Organizations also should consider ways to help employees thrive — even if those workers never want to reach the top rung of the traditional career ladder.

“It is frustrating to be a really strong contributor and see no future for yourself,” Vaillancourt said. “Employers need to think about how to retain exceptional individual contributors. They can do this by creating individual contributor career ladders and reimagining what leadership looks like. An individual contributor can mentor others, lead large projects and contribute thought leadership without actually supervising others.”

Editor’s Note: Additional Content

For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:

• Employee Experience
• Employee Recognition
• Workforce Engagement