What’s a ‘quiet promotion,’ and have you fallen into one?

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — When is a promotion not a good thing? In the world of “quiet quitting,” “quiet firing,” and “coffee badging,” there’s a new workplace buzz term making the rounds, and the implications aren’t good.

USA Today has called it a “sneaky workplace trend” that’s “reshaping corporate staffing strategies.” Here’s how it works.

You might be asked to take on an extra project, or maybe to cover for a colleague who’s been laid off or left the company. Gradually, it escalates until you’re doing two, or even three jobs, for just one salary.

A 2022 survey from JobSage cited by USA Today indicates that 78% of workers have experienced this phenomenon. Another 67% of workers have absorbed the responsibilities of departed colleagues, without any increase in pay.

According to USA Today, the signs that you may have fallen victim to a quiet promotion include:

• Doing manager work without manager pay
• Your job description hasn’t changed, but your workload has doubled
• You’re being asked to handle projects for a more senior role

What should you do if you think you’ve fallen into a quiet promotion trap? USA Today recommends documenting everything with “hard numbers,” comparing your role to that of internal peers, and having a “business-focused” conversation with your department head.

Linda Ta Yonemoto, a Las Vegas-based corporate career coach who spoke with USA Today recommends that you, “Strategically leverage these responsibilities as stepping stones to internal advancement or better opportunities elsewhere.”

“Your skills have value. Don’t let them be quietly devalued,” Yonemoto advised in a LinkedIn post.