Dodging the manager trap like my life depends on it

Just wrapped up my Monday afternoon one on one with the director. He gave me the classic speech about seeing leadership potential in me We all know that is corporate code for dumping an entire team on my head for a measly 15 percent pay bump.

I look at my current manager. The poor guy is online at 9 PM every single night dealing with escalations and upper management tantrums. Meanwhile, I log off at 6 PM sharp, eat my dinner in peace, and actually sleep eight hours. Taking that promotion means trading my entire work life balance for a few extra thousand rupees after tax. It is just a terrible deal.

So I played the technical expertise card. I told him I am deeply passionate about staying an individual contributor and mastering my current tech stack right now. He looked a bit disappointed, but I just smiled. I walked out of that meeting room feeling like I survived a trap. Let someone else take the shiny title. I am logging off to play video games.