The 6-Month Promotion

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Before you can be promoted, you must already be doing the higher-level job for six months, or nine…

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Before you can be promoted, you must already be doing the higher-level job for six months, or nine months, or a year.

You know what I’ve noticed? The person explaining this policy is never someone who got their own job by getting promoted into it after doing it for six months. That’s interesting, isn’t it?

Also, when we ask somebody to take on the a new, more senior role, it should mean giving up some of their previous role. If you want people to succeed, that’s the math, right?

For example, if we expect a Senior PM to do the work of a Group PM in order to earn a promotion, we expect her to do TWO jobs?

That is performative, it’s gatekeeping, and it’s ridiculous.

From my perspective, the standards for promotion should be as objective and binary as possible: Either she meets the standards for advancement at the time of promotion, or she doesn’t.

Some version of this policy has existed in several of the companies I’ve worked in. It’s well-meaning, but I think it needs work.

One thing I’ve learned (from mandatory training, of all places!): Subjective standards applied inconsistently are a breeding ground for unconscious bias.

The six-month requirement doesn’t get brought up in every promotion conversation. When it does, it seems to me to have been used more frequently by relatively privileged managers to scrutinize the promotion of under-represented subordinates, especially women.

I’ve been promoted a few times, and had countless development conversations with my bosses, and none of them ever mentioned this standard to me.

That is anecdotal and I am not accusing anybody of anything worse than applying a poor policy. Even if there’s zero unconscious bias, I think this way of thinking about promotions is a bit lazy and reflects low trust in managers.

If you’re assessed to meet the standards, then you get promoted, congratulations! Go succeed or fail in your new role. Your manager is going to be held accountable for your readiness, so I’m sure they’ve been very careful in assessing it.

Also: Read the room. Of course we should be thoughtful and thorough about promotions. And, we’re in the most challenging talent market in modern history. I would rather manage four mis-timed promotion than replace one high-performing colleague.

This isn’t easy stuff, but I think we can do better. Let me know how you’ve dealt with these issues in your career.