Saying No To Promotions Away From Tech?

lunchlady55 writes "I have been happily working for my current employer for five years. After moving up the ranks within my department from Intern to Technical Lead, a new manager essentially told me that I have to move into a different role, oriented toward 'administrative duties and management.' We are a 24x7 shop, and will now be required to work five 8-hour days rather than four 10-hour days and be on call during the other two days of the week. Every week. Including holidays. My question is: have any Slashdotters been forced into a non-technical role, and how did it work out? Has anyone said 'No thanks' to this kind of promotion and managed to keep their jobs?"

Comments

Lunchlady is now a tech position?

[Giant Electronic Bra]

Wow, the future was never like this in my dreams! ;)

Re:Negotiate

[Anonymous Coward]

As for the managerial side, this is nothing new. If you show a) competence, and b) any signs you don't have a serious attitude problem, it's expected.

I'm fairly sure you have this backwards.

Re:You can't say NO

[jafiwam]

I have done some of my best technical work drunk. Once I laid out a fourteen page Visio diagram for the whole provisioning process AT&T was using for the big data trunks, in a bar, with pitcher in front of me, being consumed by me and refilled when necessary. (This was in 1997, they have changed the process since then.) Granted that was documentation, but the document lasted for several years afterward as a training tool, and reference for the pointy-hairs.

Drunk only counts if you have to talk to some douche who wants to whine about his email being down. If you follow best practices making backups and "un-dos" on the way like you should ALL the time, it's not a problem.