What Happened to Climbing the Corporate Ladder?

In the nineties and aughts, an early-thirties employee would quietly wait for jobs to open up above their current role. It might take two years or more to get that big promotion, but patience was part of the game. The corporate climb was a slow one, but it paid out in the end. It was in advertisements all the time. The best things come to those who wait.

These days, the allure of the corporate ladder, a veritable institution at many firms, is fading. Today’s thirtysomething is just as likely to ask their boss for a sabbatical or just quit. Just 41% of workers plan to follow the traditional corporate path, and 72% say that climbing the ladder is “outdated,” according to a new survey. The figures are part of a continual misalignment between mostly younger workers and corporate leaders that are showing up in several areas, such as return to office policies and booming interest in side gigs--with some experts worried leaders are not getting the message behind the shifts. “There’s a disconnect,” says organizational strategist Kim Waller, senior client partner at Korn Ferry. “I don’t think they’re listening.”

To be sure, executives have some good reasons to ignore the latest shift in career flexibility. Most spent the eighties and nineties paying their dues and expect up-and-comers to do the same. Any other path is hard to conceive. The result: Few C-suite residents perceive the sea change in career outlooks, and those who do “are just not equipped to deal with it,” says tech expert Moses Zonana, senior client partner at Korn Ferry. “Most workers aren’t expecting to stay put through a standard track.”

Whether the shift is perceived or not, the stakes for firms are enormous. Most have struggled with producing revenue growth, which can come from having an engaged and productive workforce. Instead, a shocking 60 percent of millennial workers, for example, they’re looking for some external excuse—like being laid off—to finally leave a job they don’t like.

While linear career paths are taking hit, so-called “portfolio” careers appear in vogue, with thirty-eight percent of employees saying that they would like different types of jobs across their lives, according to the same data. Nearly half cite work-life balance as their top retention factor, while only 23% cite pay. Current corporate career messaging not only doesn’t reflect these outlooks but also tends to repel the majority who opine them. “Corporate jobs suffer from a lack of imagination in how they market themselves,” says David Vied, global sector leader for medical devices and diagnostics.

To be sure, today’s tight job market, though starting to improve, hasn’t given a lot of workers many options to just bolt, but they can engage in various forms of so-called quiet quitting. Experts say the only answer for corporate leaders is quicky reset and consider a major overhaul on recreating new job tracks for workers. The fact most are not worries many analysts. “It’s not being made a priority,” says Anya Weaver, a principal consultant at Korn Ferry. And while the job market is tights, firms do need to realize that workers do have the wealth of opportunities, especially in today’s gig work economy where many workers can scrape by with a mix of part-time work, or dip into stints in carshare or delivery gig economy work if needed. That too may take a series shifting in how executives who climbed career ladders view the world. “There are more options, and leaders need to learn to sell against them,” says JP Sniffen, practice leader at the Military Center of Excellence at Korn Ferry.

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