Non-Promotion
Great news, Page! I'm giving you a Promotion! Your new title is Trope Page, as opposed to your old role of Blank Page. Now the pay's the same and there are no perks, but you will be expected to keep Discussions and subpages, it's a new responsibility. Keep at it and you may get moved up later, but for now you need to put in the extra time, this is great opportunity for you!
There are a great many names for this: in Real Life and in fictional office settings they call it being a Team Leader. In the military they call it a Brevet rank, you get the authority and whatnot of the promotion, but not the money. Happened a lot in Real Life in the American Civil War and the World Wars.
Think of it as the opposite of being Kicked Upstairs, you stay right where you are but do more work! Oh and I need you to file these examples too.
Examples of Non-Promotion include:
Film
- An almost example appears in an opening scene of the film Scorched: a long-time employee of the bank is promoted to Assistant Manager, receiving a vast list of new responsibilities ... and a 55 cents an hour raise.
Literature
- Brevet ranks turn up a lot in The X Wing Series.
- In particular, it seems to be a New Republic Starfighter tradition that new squadron commanders are given the rank of Brevet Captain. It's kind of a sore point for Donos that he never actually made captain because his whole squadron was wiped out except him. There's also the one time Piggy made himself an Acting (Naval) Captain (because he took over an enemy warship on his own). He's later informed that this self-bestowed promotion could be made real with a little paperwork, though decides not to go through with it.
- There is a Wayside School story in which one kid is picked as Class President. Much jubilation on the part of said student until he learns that the exalted post of Class President entails turning off the lights at the end of class.
- Although in this case, the one day he is sick and isn't in class, the entire day is wasted as the teacher "can't teach without light" and the class president is the only one able to turn on the lights.
- In Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Johnny is chosen as a Cadet Leader, which just means he has additional responsibility for his fellow cadets. Unfortunately he lets the position to go his head, and winds up court-martialled and nearly booted out of the service entirely.
- This happened to the main character in the Sten novels by Chris Bunch. He's given cadet rank (eventually up to becoming a company commander), but among other things, he's responsible for discipline across the entire company, and isn't very good at it. Eventually he's given command during an exercise against an overwhelming enemy, fails spectacularly, and is kicked out of training because of it.
- In The Cloakmaster Cycle Teldin at one point "promoted" trooper Gomja to sergeant, even though Teldin himself wasn't currently on any service, has no official status other than "farmer" and was but a mule skinner in the army before retirement. Unusual in that this helped. The "promotion" forced a young and completely dependent on the orders Giff to think for himself, and even unlocked his tactical thinking to the dangerous level: for Giff being a Space Marine is the only understandable way of life and the only subject of their education. It's unclear whether Teldin did it on purpose or just to make him feel better, but Hilarity Ensues.
- Guido and Nunzio infiltrated the Possiltum army in M.Y.T.H. Inc. in Action Guido was promoted to "Acting Squad Leader" while in boot camp—which meant "playin' sheepdog" for the rest of his squad, and nothing more.
- In The Dresden Files Harry repeatedly grants higher and higher ranks to the pixie Toot-Toot. Harry thinks it's just stroking Toot's ego, but Toot takes it seriously, so with each promotion he recruits more and more pixies to follow him. When Harry finally calls on the "'Za Lord's Guard" for help, he's quite surprised at how many of them there are.
Live-Action TV
- The Office.
- In the British version, Tim perfectly describes "Team Leader" as "a title someone's given you to get you to do something they don't want to do, for free."
- The American version has Dwight getting promoted by Michael from Assistant to the Regional Manager to Assistant Regional Manager. It's an unofficial promotion without any perks. Also, when Dwight thinks he will become the manager, he holds interviews for his "Number Two Man". He then appoints Andy as the Number Two "for political reasons" and Pam as his secret actual Number Two before he finds out that no one is getting promoted.
- Richie Cunningham was made group leader (or whatever the precise title was) of his ROTC unit in high school, which Ralph and Potsie took as permission to goof off.
- 3rd Rock from the Sun, "Dick Strikes Out":
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Dick Solomon: I'm sorry, there is simply no room in the budget for raises. But I can go you one better: promotions! Sally, you are now Senior Security Officer. |
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- On News Radio Dave promoted Matthew to the position of coordinating producer. He takes his job very seriously but of course nobody takes him seriously. Dave admits it's a useless title with no real power and Matthew asks if Dave is going to make him Queen of England.
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Dave Nelson: I was thinking Marquis de la Supply Closet. |
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- In The Mary Tyler Moore Show, when Mary is first hired, Lou offers her a choice of Assistant Director or Secretary. She, of course, chooses Assistant Director. When she meets and talks to Murray, she finds out that the Secretary job pays more.
Newspaper Comics
- Team Leaders are a source of humour in Dilbert. e.g.,
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PHB: Congratulations Ted! I've appointed you senior Vice-Duke of all Engineering! |
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- This is Played With frequently in Dilbert, including everythin from long, overblown titles like "Supreme Commander of Cubicle S700R!" to "Not only will you not get raises, you'll also not get promotions! Oh, and you'll all be named Beverly."
Tabletop Games
- In Paranoia most Troubleshooter missions require the group to choose a team leader (or have one chosen for them). The members had to follow the leader's orders, and the leader was responsible for successful completion of the mission. As most missions are impossible and half the team is likely to try and sabotage it anyway it really is a bad, BAD job.
- Dungeons & Dragons: Certain devil forms are really big, really strong, and really, really stupid. Since your place in the hierarchy of Baator is determined by how many souls you've brought in, and you don't get credit for just killing people, getting put in one of these forms is not productive to advancing up the ranks. Baatezu call strong forms that stall your advancement "lateral demotions".
Video Games
- Cloud from Final Fantasy VII actually gets voted as being the "leader" of the party in-game.
Western Animation
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Phil Ken Sebben: You know what that means?
Birdman: Promotions? |
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Real Life
- Truth in television with military brevet ranks; promotions given authorizing officers to claim the title and responsibility of a promotion, without the actual pay. In defense of the military, these are typically given out because the promotion is justified, but cannot be given, usually because the brevet rank is given well before the date of promotion.
- The U.S. Navy has a similar example. Come the end of every twice-a-year promotion cycle, those who have been advanced are all allowed to put on their new rank insignia at the same time once the results come out. This is called "being frocked", as in the priestly insignia. While for all intents and purposes the promoted member is considered to be his new rank, he does not actually get paid for it until officially promoted, which happens in a staggered schedule that goes on for up to three months beyond the frocking date, and is arranged in order of overall grade during the promotion evaluation and testing. On top of that, only the enlisted personnel are subject to this; Navy officers are promoted on a normal you-wear-it, you're-paid-for-it schedule. Other military branches think this is quite strange, to which the many sailors can only glumly nod their heads and agree.
- What's worse, in the off chance that someone happens to be demoted while frocked, the demotion is based on their actual, not frocked, rank. So in effect, a demotion of one paygrade results in a two-step loss.
- On a smaller scale, when you are merely given extra responsibilities but not the extra rank or pay, it is often referred to as An Opportunity To Excel.
- Brevet ranks are also sometimes dragged out when someone is In Command Now, especially if filling in for a mid-rank officer who was killed. The theory here is that since the soldier isn't technically a lieutenant/captain/whatever, if the new position doesn't work out they can be put back without actually being demoted.
- It also is used to keep a coherent rank structure when a military unit is temporarily but significantly expanded, with the breveted soldiers being returned to their official rank after the enlarged unit is reduced to its original size. For example, George Armstrong Custer is often remembered as General Custer despite dying as a Lt Colonel, because he was breveted to Major General during the Civil War, was returned to his permanent rank of Captain after the war ended, and then started working his way back up the ranks again.
- The U.S. Navy has a similar example. Come the end of every twice-a-year promotion cycle, those who have been advanced are all allowed to put on their new rank insignia at the same time once the results come out. This is called "being frocked", as in the priestly insignia. While for all intents and purposes the promoted member is considered to be his new rank, he does not actually get paid for it until officially promoted, which happens in a staggered schedule that goes on for up to three months beyond the frocking date, and is arranged in order of overall grade during the promotion evaluation and testing. On top of that, only the enlisted personnel are subject to this; Navy officers are promoted on a normal you-wear-it, you're-paid-for-it schedule. Other military branches think this is quite strange, to which the many sailors can only glumly nod their heads and agree.