The way of relating and thriving at work has nothing to do with previous generations. More than half of Spaniards (57%) do not aspire to professional promotion, according to a recent Infojobs report. Another study, Talent Trends 2025 by MichaelPage, concludes that 55% of workers would reject a promotion if that new work situation affected their well-being.
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These two reports reveal transformations in work aspiration and the concept of success. “Today we detect a clear disinterest in taking on responsibilities in the workplace, which fits the phenomenon of quiet ambition that has come to stay with Generation Z,” says Carlos González Reyes, professor of Economics and Business Studies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).
Today we detect a clear disinterest in taking on responsibilities in the workplace”
Carlos González-Reyes
Professor at UOC
This new work philosophy has a very clear motto: “life is what happens outside of work.” So today personal well-being and free time are prioritized like never before over work ambition, positions of power, or marathon workdays, even if overtime is paid.
One might think, seeing the situation, that the aversion to leading has taken over offices. But this growing trend to avoid new responsibilities has other explanations. “For many years organizations have associated promotion with a salary increase, but nowadays that economic increase no longer compensates for the real cost that taking on responsibility will have in terms of loss of well-being,” adds González Reyes.
“We are facing a paradigm: there are people – no longer a marginal minority – who say ‘no’ to promotion at any cost,” says sociologist Natàlia Cantó-Milà, professor of Arts and Humanities Studies at UOC. And this, she continues, “is not a redefinition of the concept of success; it is a clear questioning of the model.”
The classic model, which puts success and career above all, now only represents 18% of the workforce
Until now, career advancement was synonymous with professional success. But this is no longer the case and people “who put career and success above all are becoming fewer.” The classic model now only represents 18% of the workforce, these studies say. They are the ones who link professional success exclusively to visible promotions at work.
On the contrary, 54% of the workers surveyed prioritize progress in their work without the need for power quotas or public recognition.
This is not a redefinition of the concept of success; it is a clear questioning of the model”
Natalia Cantó-Milà
Professor at UOC
What is the recipe for this new scenario? “Growing professionally should not necessarily mean leading teams,” answers González-Reyes. And many companies are already taking note “and are betting on dual careers, where one can progress through technical experience without taking on leadership roles, which allows retaining talent that might otherwise disconnect.”
Generational gap
Some for pleasure and others for comfort
In corporate ambition, according to this Infojobs study, there is a clear generational gap. The lack of interest in prospering or advancing at work becomes very evident from around 30/35 years old. Below that age, competitiveness is still felt. Six out of ten young people under thirty do express that they want to prosper. A desire that decreases as they get older. Generation X (1965-1980) or Millennials (1981-1996), once highly competitive, have long prioritized, surveys reveal, work-life balance over aiming for a new position. They prioritize comfort above all, while Generation Z (1996-2010) prioritizes the pleasure of living.
“The youngest want to advance because they need to improve salary and stability and because they are in a phase of aspiration and growth,” says González-Reyes. On the contrary, “seniors have redefined ambition; they do not reject it outright, but once established in their jobs they value work-life balance more than taking on new responsibilities,” adds this UOC professor.
This rejection of leading and managing also has another name. It is called conscious unbossing, which could be translated as the conscious desire not to be a boss or “conscious disengagement.” It is not due to lack of work commitment, nor money issues; this trend goes hand in hand with the philosophy of “quiet ambition,” which seeks, above all, time to live.
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Giving up being a boss also has a name: “conscious unbossing” or conscious disengagement
The youngest workers have internalized that “a change in position will mean more responsibility, more stress, and less personal balance,” says González. So giving up a promotion does not mean fear of leading or that there are now more insecurities about abilities in the labor world. It is simply a “value proposition.” Earning, for example, 400 euros more per month does not compensate for the extra hours that will have to be spent at work to earn that money.
More than ever, the goal is to work to live and not live to work. Even knowing that one will be paid more, that salary increase no longer motivates, especially when it is sensed that the money will not compensate for the loss of personal well-being. “If having more time for oneself is not guaranteed, the salary ceases to be attractive,” González Reyes reiterates.
If having more time for oneself is not guaranteed, the salary ceases to be attractive,” González Reyes reiterates.
The Infojobs study confirming that 57% of workers do not want to be promoted reveals that 19% of those surveyed are very clear and would not accept more responsibilities at this time, while 39% are not so emphatic but clearly show little interest in promotion within the company.
“This does not mean, González-Reyes believes, that there is a crisis of managerial vocation.” What these studies reveal, he thinks, “is that there is a crisis of the traditional leadership model.”
Many workers also give up a promotion because the hours they would have to spend at the office are needed for other unavoidable things
Sociologist Natàlia Cantó-Milà opens another front, that of work-life balance due to unforeseen situations, to explain this new labor profile. “There are people for whom promotion means increased responsibilities and that, in turn, means taking on tasks they do not want to know about: they believe that prospering at work will mean putting more hours at the employer’s disposal, which they often do not have because they are assigned to dependent persons or for themselves.”
In a precarious work environment, with a rising cost of living that does not match salaries, it also works against the fact that taking on more responsibilities does not always lead to a more comfortable life. One does not live better with that money.
Those who reject a promotion to live better coexist with workers who need two jobs to survive
So many no longer even consider that possibility. And there is the paradox, Cantó-Milà highlights, with an increasingly repeated phenomenon in these precarious labor conditions and when the possibility of promotion is not even dreamed of. “The number of people who have to accept two jobs to survive has increased,” she says.
The labor market, moreover, “is still adjusting to new priorities such as mental health, work-life balance, and autonomy, and all this forces us to rethink what it means to lead and under what conditions,” concludes González-Reyes.
