What do you think is the reason for not being promoted and raised after hard work?

Because promotion and salary increase are inherently difficult!

There are two main reasons.

The first one is what many people will say. In the current environment, it is not easy for any industry to make money. Everyone feels that they are very hard, and they all feel that they work too much and get less money. However, while complaining, many people still work harder than before, because people who complain know that they may not earn so much money if they leave their current jobs! It's like some people say that others are too devoted every day, but at the same time they work harder than anyone else. After all, it's difficult to make money, so it's never easy to get a promotion and a raise.

I once talked about this phenomenon in the answer to "Why all walks of life are persuading", which is not only caused by the current environment, but also by personal mentality.

Why are almost all college majors dropping out of school?

The second reason is that the distribution of posts in all walks of life strictly follows the golden pyramid principle, that is to say, the number of posts will drop sharply every step up from the most basic level.

Moreover, the job distribution in many industries is not a fat pyramid structure like an equilateral triangle that your mind intuitively imagines, but a structure that is very unlike a pyramid, as shown in the following figure. In this work distribution structure, the number of jobs decreases exponentially every time you move up one level. It is likely that a company has 1000 grass-roots employees, but there are only 30 middle-level employees and five or six high-level employees. Faced with this disparity, it is almost impossible for grass-roots employees to be promoted.

In addition, there are two facts that make young people more sad in the workplace, especially in some emerging industries.

The first sad fact is that the hierarchical structure of many companies has become flatter, that is to say, there are fewer levels. Nowadays, many companies have almost no middle level. Basically, it is directly from the grassroots employees to the boss or general manager. Under this hierarchical structure, it is almost impossible to get promoted.

The second sad fact is that most young people's direct supervisors are only about five years older than themselves, and even the boss's boss is not more than ten years older than himself. This means that if the industry does not continue to expand and create more jobs, everyone will stay in their current posts for a long time and will not be promoted.

I have described this phenomenon in my answer to "The Philosophy of Struggle Failed" [1]. After graduating from post-60 s and post-70 s, the workplace structure is a leader in his 50 s and a self in his 20 s. There is a gap between the two. The wrong reason is not only the birth population, but also that they are the first batch of large-scale middle school students and college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination. Before that, there was a talent gap of ten years.

From 1987 to 1993, it is the second climax of China population birth. After graduating and entering the workplace, these people basically filled all the grassroots positions in relatively good industries. After that, if there is no emerging and fast-developing industry, the latecomers will have to wait until the people in the industry make room.

This is why in the past few years, it seems that people in almost every industry, except a few emerging industries, have complained and felt that there is no hope.

Seeing this, many people may say that promotion is hopeless, but a salary increase is still possible!

But think about it, what is the premise of your salary increase or most people's salary increase? It is an increase in industry profits.

Only when the company has enough profits can it afford enough employees, and only when the profits increase substantially can it give employees a substantial salary increase. (I won't talk about distribution here)

Other salary increase models are unsustainable. (For example, from the boss to the employees, share the investors' money)

At present, with the in-depth reform of the real estate industry and the internet industry entering the second half, more and more industries can maintain rapid development and achieve sustained profit growth, so everyone will find it difficult to raise salaries, at least more difficult than before.

Only by grabbing more high-profit industries in the world division of labor can we provide more high-quality jobs, so that young people will have more opportunities for promotion and salary increase.

Many years ago, we discussed that the cost of producing a Barbie doll in China factory is one dollar, of which 35 cents is the profit of China factory, but this Barbie doll can be sold for ten dollars in the United States, and most of the profits are taken away by other links in the industrial chain. Later, we also analyzed how much money can be earned by producing an iPhone and how much profit can be earned by other links in the industrial chain. When we can't rush from the bottom of the industrial chain to the top, it shows that it is difficult for us to make money.

Therefore, whether for personal reasons or environmental reasons, it is difficult to get a promotion and raise salary. Only by seeing the essence of the problem and grasping the key points can we make a breakthrough.