History Main / NonPromotion

* Cloud from ''FinalFantasyVII'' actually gets voted as being the "leader" of the party in-game.
* Commander Shepard starts ''Franchise/MassEffect'' as a Lieutanent Commander of the Alliance Navy, and also gains Spectre status from the Council. Come the third game, the Alliance has never promoted Shepard, two returning squad members either match or ''outrank'' him/her, and s/he gets the widespread duty of conducting centuries-in-the-making diplomacy with every race in the Milky Way and finding as many war assets as s/he can.

* Commander Shepard starts ''Franchise/MassEffect'' as a Lieutanent Commander of the Alliance Navy, and also gains Spectre status from the Council. Come the third game, the Alliance has never promoted him, two returning squad members either match or ''outrank'' him/her, and s/he gets the widespread duty of conducting centuries-in-the-making diplomacy with every race in the Milky Way and finding as many war assets as s/he can.

Great news, Page! I'm giving you a Promotion! Your new title is Trope Page, as opposed to your old role of Blank Page. Now the pay's the same and there are no perks, but you will be expected to keep [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NonPromotionDiscussion Discussions]] and [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroperTales/NonPromotion Troper Tales]] pages, it's a new responsibility. Keep at it and you may get moved up later, but for now you need to put in the extra time, this is great opportunity for you!

* In RobertAHeinlein's ''StarshipTroopers'', Johnny is chosen as a Cadet Leader, which just means he has additional responsibility for his fellow cadets. Unfortunately he lets the position to go his head, and winds up court-martialled and nearly booted out of the service entirely.

-->*[[{{Beat}} beat]]*

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* On {{Newsradio}} Dave promoted Matthew to the position of coordinating producer. He takes his job very seriously but of course nobody takes him seriously. Dave admits it's a useless title with no real power and Matthew asks if Dave is going to make him Queen of England.

* In ''{{The Mary Tyler Moore Show}}'', when Mary is first hired, Lou offers her a choice of Assistant Director or Secretary. She, of course, chooses Assistant Director. When she meets and talks to Murray, she finds out that the Secretary job pays more.

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* In ''{{Paranoia}}'' most Troubleshooter missions require the group to choose a team leader (or have one chosen for them). The members had to follow the leader's orders, and the leader was responsible for successful completion of the mission. As most missions are impossible and half the team is likely to try and sabotage it anyway it really is a bad, ''BAD'' job.

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[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]

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** In particular, it seems to be a New Republic Starfighter tradition that new squadron commanders are given the rank of Brevet Captain. It's kind of a sore point for Donos that he never actually made captain [[spoiler: because his whole squadron was wiped out except him]]. There's also the one time Piggy ''made himself an Acting Captain'' (because he took over an enemy warship on his own).

* In RobertAHeinlein's ''StarshipTroopers'', Johnny is chosen as a Cadet Leader until he lets it go to his head and screws up, and winds up almost Court-martialed.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'' Harry repeatedly grants higher and higher ranks to Toot-Toot. Harry thinks it's just stroking Toot's ego, but Toot actually keeps upgrading the 'Za Lord's Guard and growing in size as he receives more responsibilities to match his perceived "additional responsibilities."

* In ''{{Paranoia}}'' most Troubleshooter missions require the group to choose a team leader (or have one chosen for them). The members had to follow the leader's orders, and the leader was responsible for successful completion of the mission. As most missions are impossible and half the team is likely to try and savotage it anyway it really is a bad, ''BAD'' job.
* ''DungeonsAndDragons'': Certain devil forms are really big, really strong, and really, really stupid. Since your place in the hierarchy of Baator is determined by how many souls you've brought in, and you don't get credit for just killing people, getting put in one of these forms is not productive to advancing up the ranks. Baatezu call strong forms that stall your advancement "lateral promotions".

*** You have to put real effort into making a system so needlessly complicated.

** Being promoted up from Infrared anonymity to Troubleshooter duty in the first place also qualifies as an example of this trope.

* ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' has this happen with Beverley's ranks in one episode when there are not enough command rank officers to fill the ship's roles. Even she admits it's only for the challenge and to improve herself.

* From ''HarveyBirdmanAttourneyAtLaw'':
-->Phil Ken Sebben: You know what that means?
-->Harvey Birdman: Promotions?
-->Sebben: PROOOO-MOTIONS!
-->Birdman: And raises?

-->Birdman: Promotions?
-->Sebben: PROOOO-MOTIONS!

** This is Played With frequently in ''{{Dilbert}}'', including everythin from long, overblown titles like "Supreme Commander of Cubicle S700R!" to "Not only will you ''not'' get raises, you'll also ''not'' get promotions! Oh, and you'll all be named Beverly."

Great news, Page! I'm giving you a Promotion! Your new title is Trope Page, as opposed to your old role of Blank Page. Now the pay's the same and there are no perks, but you will be expected to keep [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NonPromotionDiscussion Discussions]] and [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroperTales/NonPromotion Troper Tales]] pages, it's a new responsibility. Keep at it and you may get moved up later, but for now you need to put in the extra time, this is great oppportunity for you!

There are a great many names for this: in RealLife and in fictional office settings they call it being a ''Team Leader''. In the millitary they call it a ''Brevet'' rank, you get the authority and whatnot of the promotion, but not the money. Happened a lot in RealLife in the American Civil War and the World Wars.

* Team Leaders are a scource of humour in {{Dilbert}}. e.g.,
-->[[PointyHairedBoss PHB]]: Congratulations Ted! I've appointed you senior Vice-Duke of all Engineering!\\
Ted: Can I order business cards?\\
PHB: No. You're only a ''vice'' duke.
* TheOffice.
** In the British version, Tim perfectly describes "Team Leader" as "a title someone's given you to get you to do something they don't want to do, for free."
** The American version has Dwight getting promoted by Michael from Assistant to the Regional Manager to Assistant Regional Manager. It's an unofficial promotion without any perks. Also, when Dwight thinks he will become the manager, he holds interviews for his "Number Two Man". He then appoints Andy as the Number Two "for political reasons" and Pam as his secret actual Number Two before he finds out that [[StatusQuoIsGod no one is getting promoted]].
* Brevet ranks turn up a lot in The XWingSeries.
* StarTrekTheNextGeneration has this happen with Beverley's ranks in one episode when there are not enough command rank officers to fill the ship's roles. Even she admits it's only for the challenge and to improve herself.

* In ''{{Paranoia}}'' most Troubleshooter missions require the group to choose a team leader (or have one chosen for them). The members had to follow the leader's orders, and the leader was responsible for successful completion of the mission. As most missions are impossible and half the team is likely to try and savotage it anyway it really is a bad, ''BAD'' job.
** Being promoted up from Infrared anonymity to Troubleshooter duty in the first place also qualifies as an example of this trope.

* [[HappyDays Richie Cunningham]] was made group leader (or whatever the precise title was) of his ROTC unit in high school, which Ralph and Potsie took as permission to goof off.
* Cloud from FinalFantasyVII actually gets voted as being the "leader" of the party in-game.

* An almost example appears in an opening scene of the film ''Scorched'': a long-time employee of the bank is promoted to Assistant Manager, receiving a vast list of new responsibilities ... and a 55 cents an hour raise.
* In ''[[{{Spelljammer}} The Cloakmaster Cycle]]'' Teldin at one point "promoted" trooper Gomja to sergeant, even though Teldin himself wasn't currently on any service, has no official status other than "farmer" and was but a ''mule skinner'' in the army before retirement. Unusual in that this helped. The "promotion" forced a young and completely dependent on the orders [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Giff]] to think for himself, and even [[LetsGetDangerous unlocked his tactical thinking to the dangerous level]]: for Giff being a SpaceMarine is the only understandable way of life and the only subject of their education. It's unclear whether Teldin did it on purpose or just to make him feel better, but HilarityEnsues.

Great news Page! I'm giving you a Promotion! Your new title is Trope Page, as opposed to your old role of Blank Page. Now the pay's the same and there are no perks, but you will be expected to keep [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NonPromotionDiscussion Discussions]] and [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroperTales/NonPromotion Troper Tales]] pages, it's a new responsibility. Keep at it and you may get moved up later, but for now you need to put in the extra time, this is great oppportunity for you!

* In ''[[{{Spelljammer}} The Cloakmaster Cycle]]'' Teldin "promoted" trooper Gomja to sergeant at one point, even though he wasn't currently on any service himself, has no official status other than "farmer" and was but ''mule skinner'' in the army before. Unusual in that it did some good. The "promotion" forced a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy giff]] completely dependent on the orders to think for himself, and even unlocked his tactical thinking to the dangerous level. It's unclear whether Teldin did it on purpose or just to make him feel better.

** In the British version, Tim perfectly describes "Team Leader" as "a title someone?s given you to get you to do something they don?t want to do, for free."

*Beveret ranks turn up a lot in The XWingSeries.