Management is a different skill set. Promoting the person who's best at the job isn't always a good idea. Being the best at the job doesn't mean you'll be best at managing the people doing the job - it's often the opposite.

I was a manager for a decade+ and it has its pros and cons. I currently have a lot of autonomy and no directs and at least for now am very happy.

I've been given several opportunities to move into management, turned them all down. Middle management is the worst IMO, I can't imagine directing and managing people to accomplish tasks that have been dictated to me by people above me, who actually have no idea what is going on in the day to day environment. I feel the most useful in actually doing tasks and providing direct patient care.

I'm at manager level, but adjacent to the actual manager. So I get the manager pay, the manager autonomy, the manager perks, and can command the plebs, but don't actually have anyone who reports to me. It's the best.

Been a manager before and hated it with a passion. I rather get a little less pay and work with the guys. Way less stress and with most jobs you won't have to take it home with you. I never understood the concept of working a job and still having to attend to sh!t all the time even when you're home. I mean a doctor or something that critical I can understand. American culture doesn't respect the work life balance, especially the corporate world. (Ded fkn Srs)

For those of you vacillating on whether or not to get into management, from my experience if you have the necessary ability to effectively manage people and have a proper future-focused work mindset it's worth it.

Here's my personal experience, finance analyst to start my career during which time I got an MBA from the state school, promoted to manager late 20's, director mid 30's, and VP mid-40's. With each successive promotion I did less actual work while delegating and reviewing work more. My current role is 75% meetings where I either ask for information from others or delegate work to my team and 25% reviewing/presenting financial analysis and planning/forecasting to position the company for the future or mitigating current business challenges.

The salary increases were roughly 45% / 40% / 35% with each successive promotion. Of course the gross increase was higher with each promotion. What sets my current role apart is the access to an executive bonus of between 25% - 35% of my annual salary.

My current role is by far my favorite. But I've built up a great team whose work I trust and who know what I expect. Without that the job would be significantly harder.

My best piece of advice boyos is to always make yourself available for additional/new types of work, keep getting educated, learn to communicate effectively, and treat those who work for you like you want to be treated.