History Main / NonPromotion

** In ''Caves of Ice'', he suggests that [[LeeroyJenkins Jenit Sulla]] be breveted to captain until they see if she's worthy (better than a full promotion, as if she'd screwed up the demotion would have showed up on her record). It certainly seems to have worked, she ends up becoming the first Lady General, the highest rank in the Imperial Guard.

* When Creator/WilWheaton voiced his disatisfactor with his role on StarTrekTheNextGeneration, the producers tried to talk him into staying by offering a promotion for ''his character''.

** 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 (Naval) Captain'' (because he took over an enemy warship on his own). He's later informed that this self-bestowed promotion could be made real with a little paperwork, though decides not to go through with it.

* ''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 demotions".

* Commander Shepard starts ''Franchise/MassEffect'' as a Lieutenant Commander of the Alliance Navy, and also gains Spectre status from the Council. Come the third game, the Alliance recommissions Shepard, but two returning squad members (and, with the right background, his/her own ''mother'') 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. By the end, s/he is essentially, along with Hackett, the leader of the alliance.

* Brevet ranks turn up a lot in ''The XWingSeries''.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'' Harry repeatedly grants higher and higher ranks to the pixie Toot-Toot. Harry thinks it's just stroking Toot's ego, but Toot takes it seriously, so with each promotion he recruits more and more pixies to follow him. When Harry finally calls on the "'Za Lord's Guard" for help, he's quite surprised at how many of them there are. [[spoiler: It also seems to be physically affecting Toot, who is much, much larger than he was in the first book, as a side effect of the oft-repeated axiom that names have power. Though that may just be the pizza.]]

There are a great many names for this: in RealLife and in fictional office settings they call it being a ''Team Leader''. In the military 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.

* Cloud from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' actually gets voted as being the "leader" of the party in-game.

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 [[NonPromotionDiscussion discussions]], indexes, and a good example list. 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!

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* Commander Shepard starts ''Franchise/MassEffect'' as a Lieutenant Commander of the Alliance Navy, and also gains Spectre status from the Council. Come the third game, the Alliance recommissions Shepard, but two returning squad members (and, with the right background, his/her own ''mother'') 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.

* Guido and Nunzio infiltrated the Possiltum army in ''[[MythAdventures M.Y.T.H. Inc. in Action]]'' Guido was promoted to "Acting Squad Leader" while in boot camp -- which meant "playin' sheepdog" for the rest of his squad, and nothing more.

* Truth in television with military brevet ranks; promotions given authorizing officers to claim the title and responsibility of a promotion, without the actual pay. In defense of the military, these are typically given out because the promotion is justified, but cannot be given, usually because the brevet rank is given well before the date of promotion.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Professor Farnsworth makes Fry Executive Delivery Boy, then admits to the others that it's a meaningless title given to make Fry feel better. [[SelfDepreciation At that point the show's Executive Producers titles appear on screen.]]

* In Creator/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.

* 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 finally promotes Shepard to full Commander, but two returning squad members (and, with the right background, his/her own ''mother'') 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/remarks.php?trope=Main.NonPromotion Discussions]] and [[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!

* 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.

* There is a WaysideSchool story in which one kid is picked as Class President. Much jubilation on the part of said student until he learns that the exalted post of Class President entails turning off the lights at the end of class.

* This happened to the main character in the ''Sten'' novels by Chris Bunch. He's given cadet rank (eventually up to becoming a company commander), but among other things, he's responsible for discipline across the entire company, and isn't very good at it. Eventually he's given command during an exercise against an overwhelming enemy, fails spectacularly, and is kicked out of training because of it.

* 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.

* 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 (and, with the right background, his/her own ''mother'') 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.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'' Harry repeatedly grants higher and higher ranks to the pixie Toot-Toot. Harry thinks it's just stroking Toot's ego, but Toot takes it seriously, so with each promotion he recruits more and more pixies to follow him. When Harry finally calls on the "'Za Lord's Guard" for help, he's quite surprised at how many of them there are.

* Team Leaders are a source of humour in ''{{Dilbert}}''. e.g.,

** 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 [[NonPromotionDiscussion Discussions]] and [[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 ''TabletopGame/{{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.
** And being made a Troubleshooter in the first place exponentially decreases your expected lifespan.