Woman explains why 'hard working' employees never get promoted at their workplaces

One of the biggest motivations for anyone to work hard at a company for many years is knowing they will get promoted to higher positions. However, sometimes, companies fail to elevate deserving employees' ranks for many reasons. It can lead to employees feeling demotivated and hurt overall morale. Jacqueline Morris—who goes by @jacquelameo on TikTok—shared an insightful video explaining why certain individuals never get promoted at their jobs. The woman's analysis has gone viral, with 8 million views and nearly 911K likes on the platform.

Morris starts the video by saying, "My conspiracy theory, the hill that I will die on is if you are both good at your job and a pleasure to work with like you have a good personality. You generally get along with people. You will never be promoted." The woman explains how most hard-working employees will never get a promotion from their lower positions where they do a lot of the work. She goes into more detail to help her viewers understand what exactly she is talking about.

According to her, employees in an "executive suite" do not have to be nice to work with or be very good at their jobs. She proceeds to highlight how people at a higher level, such as a VP or director, will either be very easy to work with or be very good at their job. Such employees do not have to be both and in some cases, they are not good at either of them. However, if an individual is working below these levels where the "actual work" is done will never get a promotion.

"They will never allow an employee that is both good at doing the work and good at keeping a smile on their face while doing the work to move up that ladder," she states. Morris expresses how companies are cunning and well aware of how such low-level workers will tolerate anything. The creator concludes the video by saying, "I don't know how to get out of that cycle, but I believe in it." People who watched the video agreed with her insights and shared their thoughts about job promotions in the comments. 

@jessicakcki said, "Performance punishment is REAL!! A much older coworker at my first professional job said her best advice for me as I started my career was: 'Never do anything beyond what's explicitly required.'" @bunnieswithlazers pointed out, "This isn't a conspiracy theory. This is a fact. Make yourself indispensable and you will be indispensable in the same position forever." @anticswithdenmark expressed, "And if they do offer you a promotion, it's for 25 cents more but asylum level stress."

@burnedgold shared, "25 years best worker, did the director's job for 6 months with no extra pay, trained 3 new employees. They needed a new director - they got a guy without a degree in that position." @witchywildewoman said, "Yep. I was so good at my job that I didn't get promoted in 4 years, but they kept making me train people they then promoted. Had to hire 7 people when I left."

You can follow Jacqueline Morris (@jacquelameo) on TikTok to see more lifestyle-based content.