Kicked Upstairs / Literature

• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • After his brother Robert's rebellion, Stannis Baratheon was appointed Lord of Dragonstone, a position high in symbolism but low on power and wealth, instead of his family's ancestral and wealthy home of Storm's End. Stannis treats it as a deliberate punishment for allowing the Mad King's remaining children escape. However, there are compelling reasons to give Stannis this role, as it gives him oversight of one of the main blocs of Targaryen loyalists, it's just that his brother's lack of familial love and Stannis's personality that that leads Stannis to believe he's suffered this trope.
  • Jaime Lannister was kicked upstairs into the Kingsguard by King Aerys to prevent him becoming Lord of Casterly Rock. Jaime was immensely pleased, but his father Tywin immediately saw it for what it was, namely an attempt to remove his favored heir.
• Used as a constant threat against the Unorthodox in Brave New World. Surprisingly, it's actually for their own good. Individuals in the setting are graded by talents and bioengineered to fit their current role. The world is a sort of playground of juvenile pleasures; it's all sex, drugs, sports, and entertainment with no thought, complex passions, or intimate relations spoiling it. Some of those at the top of the society simply can't be happy being happy all the time, so they are exiled to remote colonies where they can do as they please without any chance of affecting the rest of the world. There is also another option for the Unorthodox, one that Mustapha Mond took: running the society completely. This means sacrificing one's own personal happiness to keep the rest of the world happy, a tradeoff Mustapha finds acceptable compared to an unhappy, possibly war torn society.
• Almost every person of authority on Pianosa in Catch-22 is there because the higher ups couldn't deal with their incompetence and wanted them somewhere out of the way. Often they are insufferably ambitious so the higher ups placate them with an important position on a tiny Italian island where they won't bother anyone but the soldiers living there. Hilarity Ensues, but also Surprisingly Realistic Outcome occurs as many people die because of this.
• The President of the Galaxy in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Zaphod made plans to get the job for exactly this reason — it looks and sounds impressive, and you go to a lot of high-toned events and important places, but it wields no real power. It did, however, put him in the perfect position to steal the starship Heart of Gold.
• Discworld:
  • Egregious Professor of Cruel And Unusual Geography, Chair of Experimental Serendipity and assorted other meaningless titles given to Rincewind
  • The Cruel and Unusual Geography position is occasionally justified in-text on the grounds that Rincewind has run away from stuff all over the Discworld, so he probably has a better sense of its overall shape than anyone. The fact that he still doesn't actually do much, though, makes this job the best he could dream of, as he actively seeks boredom. Boredom is safe, while excitement has tried to kill him every time. Which actually makes most Discworld wizards examples of this trope.
  • In Eric, Astfgl the King of Hell disrupts the general system (turning it from a Fire and Brimstone Hell to a Cool and Unusual Punishment comparable to a crappy, boring vacation that goes on forever), so the other lords of hell promote him to the ultimately meaningless position of Supreme Life President. He does seem much happier in the new position, though.
  • Thomas Silverfish from Moving Pictures is essentially locked out of his own film studio's chain-of-command this way when Dibbler elbows his way into the company and starts running everything, leaving the alchemist with nothing to say about the business.
    "It’ll be a step up for you, Tom! I mean, how many people in Holy Wood can call themselves Vice-President in Charge of Executive Affairs?"
    "Yes, but it's my company!"
• James Bond gets this treatment in You Only Live Twice, so that he'll be sent to a challenging diplomatic mission to Japan, and get over his Heroic BSoD in the process.
• In Lois McMaster Bujold's Falling Free, engineer Leo Graf recognises his new boss on the Cay Project, Bruce Van Atta, as some annoying twit he recommended for promotion to a desk job for the express purpose of getting the annoying git out of his way. Bruce thought it was a favor and Leo regrets it almost right away; then really regrets it when Brucie-baby turns from petty bureaucratic obstruction to attempted mass murder aka "post-fetal tissue culture disposal".
• Lampshaded through literal use in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. One character, an example of The Good Captain, starts to have qualms about colonizing Mars and leaving no traces of the native culture. In a later story in the collection, it's revealed he was stationed on a farther away planet in the solar system and thus literally "kicked up stairs."
• In the Wild Cards series, male Rhindarians carry impressive titles and are allowed to think they're in charge, when it's actually the females who make all real decisions.
• Harry Potter:
  • Some of the background information provides details about the Ministry of Magic, including its Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, which has a "Centaur Liaison Office." The fact that Centaurs in the Potter universe are staunch isolationists means that the Liaison Office doesn't actually do anything, and being "sent to the Centaur Office" is a Ministry euphemism for being sacked.
  • Plus, there seems to be little interaction between different Wizard nations, which makes the Department for International Magical Cooperation seem fairly useless. Barty Crouch was put in charge of this Department (ostensibly a demotion from his previous position as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, though going from the Head of one department to the Head of another saves face) after the debacle of his son being allegedly involved in Death Eater activities, in order to save the Ministry embarrassment. Similarly, when Cornelius Fudge is thrown out of office after his suppression of information suggesting the return of Lord Voldemort, he is given a meaningless "consultation" position, which seems mostly intended to keep him out of the way. Fudge may or may not actually fit this bill; he seems to be universally despised, so there likely isn't much pressure to keep him around. It's possible Scrimgeour actually wants his help transitioning into office.
• Phule's Company: The first we see of Willard Phule is his "promotion" to captain of Omega Company, the dumping ground for Space Legion's misfits. This backfires as Phule uses his near-limitless funds (and a serendipitous First Contact) to turn the unit's reputation around, to the point where new Legionnaires are requesting posts in his unit. To be fair, it's not only wealth and luck. Phule also takes advantage of his troops' unique abilities rather than berating them for not fitting into the standard military structure, treating them more like a special ops unit than a misfit unit.
• In the Bastard Operator from Hell series, the job of network supervisor is pretty much futile (the title character will never listen), unneeded and ultimately dangerous.
• In the Tom Clancy novel Debt of Honor, after serving as the National Security Adviser during the brief war with Japan, the President asks Jack Ryan to serve as Vice President after the previous VP resigned in disgrace, and is confirmed by the Senate. The intent was to give Jack, who constantly complained about government service while simultaneously enjoying it, a permanent way out of government service: after serving as interim Vice President until the election in eleven months, he would retire and never be asked to return. It did not work out that way at all, thanks to a loaded Japanese Airlines 747 being deliberately crashed into the Capitol Building just after Ryan was confirmed, by a disgruntled Japanese pilot who lost family in the war.
• In H. Beam Piper's story "Ministry of Disturbance", the concept has been all but formally institutionalized:
  "Bench of Counselors; that was the answer! Elevate Harv Dorflay to the Bench. That was what the Bench was for, a gold-plated dustbin for the disposal of superannuated dignitaries. He'd do no harm there, and a touch of outright lunacy might enliven and even improve the Bench."
• The children's book Reynard the Fox eventually has the eponymous character being given the position of ambassador to the human world; this is basically done so that Reynard can't cause any more trouble in the animal kingdom.
• At the end of A Passage to India, the mediocre British bureaucrat Ronnie Heaslop is removed from his Indian post in consequence of some of his poor judgments creating public unrest and gets a promotion and is sent to Palestine. Essentially, he's given another colony to screw up.
• In Nineteen Eighty-Four, after being arrested and brainwashed by the Thought Police, Party members are often allowed to hang around for several years before being executed, during which time they are given sinecures of no importance whatsoever. This fate befalls three of the founding Party members, Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford, along with the protagonist.
• In Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series, Adolf Hitler expy Jake Featherston gives the job of Vice President to the leader of a smaller group in the Freedom Party in order to unite their White Power-based voter base while shoving the former rival off to the side (and giving his own right-hand man the position of Attorney General, which holds actual power). When the Vice President figures this out, he attempts a coup to seize power but ultimately fails.
• In Animorphs, Visser Three is so ruthless and quick to kill his underlings that no one wants to be promoted to a higher Sub-Visser (like a lieutenant) or Visser (like a general) position. Other Yeerks will sometimes get promoted just because the position above theirs was recently vacated by a "fool".
• Star Trek novels:
  • Diplomatic Implausibility: Captain Klag gets rid of First Officer Drex this way.
  "I can say with absolute certainty that you did not receive this commission due to your skills. Like our friend the ambassador, you have the chancellor to thank for your position. But unlike the ambassador, I have no reason to believe that you might rise above the nepotism. I cannot justify removing you from this post. I can, however, give you a promotion".
  • This might be taken as the reason for the promotion to admiral of Jellico, the abrasive captain who filled in for Picard at one time. He's competent in some ways, but absolutely horrible at managing people, as detailed in Riker's "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • Star Trek: Ex Machina explains that this is why Kirk was an admiral in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. After a particularly controversial violation of the Prime Directive (for the purposes of saving a civilization from destruction), Kirk became a household name. His career was dissected in the media to the point where his reputation — as both a hero and a troublemaker - was blown out of all proportion. Half of Starfleet Command wanted him dismissed from the service, the other half idolized him. Admiral Nogura eventually solved the problem by promoting Kirk, acknowledging the good of his actions while keeping him behind a desk, and so out of trouble. It seemed the safest compromise. Interestingly, Nogura doesn't really see it as this trope; he honestly believes that Kirk would be a great admiral.
  • The same author indicates in Forgotten History that the situation was engineered by a Starfleet Admiral who wanted the Enterprise's original engines for time-travel experiments. He assigned a by-the-book auditor to that mission because he knew Kirk couldn't resist being a hero and the auditor would file an outraged report that would get Kirk out of the captain's chair.
  • In Star Trek: Vanguard, made the subject of a joke at Nogura's own expense. What happened to Nogura after Project Vanguard concluded? Answer: just what you'd expect to happen to an officer who had a starbase shot out from under him — he was promoted.
  • In the Star Trek: Vulcan's Soul novel Exodus an increasingly older Pavel Chekov finally accepted promotion to Admiral from Captain after Starfleet would only assign him routine patrols well within Federation space.
  • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation prequel novel the Valiant, a young Lieutenant Commander Jean-Luc Picard learns from USS Stargazer Captain Daithan Ruhalter that Ruhaltar intends to do this with his first officer Stephen Leach and promote Picard to take his place. When the Stargazer was attacked and crippled by the Nuyyad, Ruhaltar was killed and Leach was seriously injured, forcing Picard to take temporary command. After the immediate crisis is solved the Stargazer returns to Earth where Admiral Mehdi kicks Leach upstairs while also promoting Picard to be the permanent Captain of the Stargazer.
• In the Star Trek unauthorized parody novel Star Wreck The Generation Gap by Leah Rewolinski, Capt. Jean-Lucy Ricardo introduces Dr. Pragmatski thusly:
  "This is Dr. Cape Pragmatski...She's been our chief Medical Officer since Westerly's mother, Dr. Beverage Flusher, was kicked upstairs by the High Command."
• In The Dresden Files, it's outright stated that Karrin Murphy was given a promotion to Lieutenant in charge of Special Investigations as a way of tacitly getting her to quit (Special Investigations is where cops go to watch their careers die). That she was actually good at her job, despite being in the worst possible position, results in various people looking for other ways of bringing her down. By book nine, she's been demoted to Sergeant for dereliction of duty, and in the aftermath of Changes, she's been fired for alleged incompetence. Admittedly the incompetence charge isn't her fault, but a trumped-up farce dreamed up by the ex-SI cop Rudolph, who enjoys using his powers in Internal Affairs to make SI's life hell.
• In Tse-Mallory's flashback from The Tar-Aiym Krang, the officer in charge of a stingship squadron is promoted to commander and re-assigned to a desk job on a backwater planet after he opts not to intervene and prevent a massacre of innocents, rather than risk being blamed for any resulting diplomatic upset. In contrast, Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex are demoted for defying orders and engaging the would-be invaders anyway, then awarded medals for their heroism.
• The Guild Wars 2 novel Edge Of Destiny reveals that most Asura view the Arcane Council as this, as dealing with bureaucracy takes time away from their own research. Klab in particular shows reluctance when he's chosen to be director of pest control.
• British statesman Lord Chesterfield tells of an incident in Letters to His Son: "This necessary consequence of his view defeated it; and the Duke of Newcastle and the Chancellor chose to kick him upstairs into the Secretaryship of State, rather than trust him with either the election or the management of the new parliament." (Letter 199)
• One of the Red Dwarf features an inadvertent example; two admirals in the Space Corps, one extremely capable and the other a complete incompetent, share the same last name, which is then mixed up by a hungover clerk — with the result that the incompetent keeps getting promoted for the capable man's successes and the capable man keeps getting assigned crappy jobs due to the incompetent's failures. It ends reasonably happily, however, since when the capable man finally gets sick of the situation and resigns, the mix-up means that the incompetent's pay gets slashed as he goes on the capable man's retirement pension, while the capable man keeps receiving full pay; since the incompetent has been utterly bewildered by his rise in status he assumes that he's just been found out and justly punished, so doesn't question it.
• The Reynard Cycle: The often drunk, hot-headed Count Terrien is named Lord High Admiral after leading an entire army into disaster. His fleet, it turns out, is only thirty ships strong and doesn't participate in the war.
• Referenced in the book Blast From the Past by Ben Elton. Jack's contemporary Schulz has a long, distinguished record of military service, but lacks any social or interpersonal skills; making him completely unsuitable for leadership. As such, he's spent his career being promoted to positions that are commensurate to his status and experience, but where he doesn't have any real influence. Ultimately subverted when Jack commits suicide just as he was about to be appointed the National Security Advisor. The job then goes to Schulz, who's the only other suitable candidate, as he is so dull that no scandals were ever attached to him.
• In the first Monster Hunter International Memoirs book, a sheriff who doesn't understand the need for having a UF (Unearthly Forces) liason gets rid of his by promoting the man to head of traffic. Unusually for this trope, the man is thrilled — traffic cops almost never have to work overtime and then get woken up at 3AM to come back in so they can respond to a crisis, events that happened several times a week in Unearthly Forces. Since the promotion came with a real rank increase, he got a raise out of the deal. And since he's only a few years away from qualifying for a pension, the fact that the traffic department is a career dead-end doesn't matter that much to him. When his boss realizes that they really do need a UF specialist, he categorically refuses to take the job back, and insists that they pick someone else.
• In The Lost Fleet series, Geary wants to promote the second-in-command of one of the fleet's critical repair and resupply ships to captain and remove the utterly useless man currently in that position, but can't simply sack him due to Geary's delicate political position with the other fleet officers at the time. So he "promotes" the captain to a staff position so he can focus on a study to examine the fleet's logistical requirements and what they need to get home, leaving the tedious and dreary work of ship (and, as seniormost surviving commander of the auxiliaries, squadron) command to his subordinate. Said former-captain is still working on his report on how to get the fleet home after the fleet gets home.
• Played hilariously as the fate of the Head of Experiment House in The Silver Chair:
  "After that, the Head's friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn't much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after."
• In the Lockwood & Co. books, after working with Lockwood and Co. on the Chelsea outbreak case in The Hollow Boy, Quill Kipps is promoted to a division head within the Fittes Agency in The Creeping Shadow. Lockwood and Co. assume this is the first step in his moving on to greater things, but it turns out that afterwards he's being given a lot of bad assignments and generally on the outs. It turns out that they thought he showed a bit too much independence for their liking during the Chelsea affair, so they kicked him upstairs. He finally has enough and ends up quitting.
• In Provenance, the Radchaai ambassador to the Geck describes her posting in this way. It's essentially a punishment posting to keep her out of the way, albeit one that brought with it a promotion, and for bonus points, the cultural differences mean it's basically fine-tuned to be an Ironic Hell to the Radchaai. Radchaai culture is somewhat prissy, particularly about their gloves; the Geck eat with their fingers, or near equivalents at least. Radchaai have a lot of rituals related to tea; the Geck have objections to water being boiled, and mostly drink lukewarm salt water. She doesn't have anything important to do while there, either; the Geck are the most insular species in the galaxy, view most of the universe as a sort of howling abyss of perpetual misery and chaos, and as such they tend not to be involved in diplomatic crises. Finally, the Radchaai diplomatic machinery won't let her resign.
• A variant happens in Journey to the West. Sun Wukong/The Monkey King is offered a position in the Bureaucracy of Heaven so the Jade Emperor could keep a better eye on him. Sun Wukong is made Head of the Imperial Stables, which he's fine with... until he finds out the position is the lowest in the Heavenly Hierarchy, at which point he goes back to his home and names himself "The Great Sage Equal To Heaven" to make himself feel better. After a lot of fights that resolves in Sun Wukong kicking the asses of all of Heaven's champions, the Jade Emperor resigns to Sun Wukong's demands and agrees to officially name him "The Great Sage Equal To Heaven" since it's pretty much an empty title that holds no real power or authority.
• Eventually done to Admiral Allen Higgins in the Honor Harrington series, but in this case out of pure kindness: Higgins had, just a few years earlier, been forced to destroy the crucial naval shipyard of Grendelsbane in order to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, and shortly thereafter, while commanding Home Fleet, was forced to watch helplessly as almost all of Manticore's orbital infrastructure was destroyed within minutes. At that point the Grand Alliance leadership, who didn't blame him in the slightest for either disaster, concluded — accurately — that the severely traumatized Higgins was in no shape to command anything for the foreseeable future, and made him Vice Chief of Staff for the Grand Alliance command instead — a position in which he fortunately proved highly effective.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Commander Wedge Antilles turned down a number of promotions up until just after The Thrawn Trilogy, preferring to remain as a Commander so he could remain in the cockpit of an X-wing blasting TIE fighters away. Shortly after Thrawn's death, Antilles finally accepts a promotion to General when Admiral Ackbar tells him that the other members of Rogue Squadron were also refusing promotions and were remaining at lower ranks while they should have much higher ranks due to their experience and time in service. In the long run, while Antilles still prefers being in the field, he begrudgingly admits that being a general gives him many more opportunities to do good.