親愛的安妮：我希望你能給我些建議，因為我覺得可能有很多人和我一樣——而這在某種程度上是問題的關鍵所在。2014年，我唯一的決心就是最終獲得晉升，但看起來希望不大。我所在的公司非常好，我并不想離開。然而，我們公司在經濟衰退期砍掉了大量的管理層，因此短期內可供晉升的高層職務是少之又少，而且公司內部（更不用提公司外部）符合晉升要求的人員已經排成了長龍。

????所以我覺得我的問題在于，我現在該怎么辦？我已經在盡力表現自己，例如在現有的崗位上拿出出色的業績，但是大家也都在這樣做。你能給我提一些建議，幫助我繼續留在公司發展嗎？——Rooted but Restless

親愛的R.R.：你覺得跟你有類似遭遇的人還有很多，這一點你說的沒錯——而且，公司上層人士可能正在絞盡腦汁，思考如何把你留在公司，希望這多少能給你一些安慰。波士頓職業發展公司ClearRock副總裁勞拉?博伊森說：“公司高層基本上都在思考這個現實的問題?！彼€說：“那些在經濟下行時曾幫助公司完成目標的重要員工如今正期待獲得晉升。然而問題在于，在公司決定保持現有精簡構架時，他們有這個機會嗎？”

????這個問題已經積壓有一段時間了，這也讓很多失望的中層管理人員難有出頭之日，部分原因是因為嬰兒潮一代的高層大軍由于受經濟衰退（以及房地產危機）的影響未能如期退休。

????如今出現晉升難現象的另一個原因在于，正如你所看到的，管理層的工作崗位的確越來越少。與此同時，技術崗位的數量呈爆發式增長。例如，求職網站TheLadders在11月份調查了約6萬家公司后發現，其中含有“經理”頭銜的崗位的增長率比崗位平均增長率低25%，含有“總監”頭銜的崗位增長率比崗位平均增長率低50%。在增長速度排名前10的工作崗位中，有7個崗位都是技術崗位或與技術相關的崗位。只有三個崗位（人員會計師、法律助理和行政助理）對STEM（科學、技術、工程和數學）領域專長沒有作出要求。

????很多跟你級別一樣的人對自己的期望做出了相應的調整。不妨看看下面這項調查：去年12月，咨詢公司BlessingWhite對全美全職雇員2014年將要采取的職業生涯舉措進行了調查，結果發現，超過半數（58%）有上升趨勢的員工希望去從事新的項目，要么在現有的公司做，要么去其他的公司。只有13%的員工認為他們會得到晉升。

Dear Annie: I hope you can give me some ideas, because I think I'm probably just one of many -- which, in a way, is the whole problem. My only resolution for 2014 is to finally get promoted, but it's looking unlikely. I work for a really good company, so I don't want to leave, but so many layers of management were done away with during the recession that there are now very few senior jobs likely to be available anytime soon, and lots of internal (not to mention external) qualified people in line.

????So I guess my question is, what can I do now? I'm already doing the obvious things, like producing great results in my current position, but so is everybody else. Can you suggest anything that might help me hang on here? -- Rooted but Restless

Dear R.R.: You're right to surmise that you have plenty of company -- and, if it's any consolation, people upstairs may be thinking pretty hard right now about how to hold on to you. "This is a real problem that's very much on the minds of senior management," notes Laura Poisson, a vice president at Boston-based career development firm ClearRock.

????"Valuable players who helped companies meet their goals during the downturn are ready to move up," she says. "The question is, how can they, when organizations are determined to stay lean?"

????It's a conundrum that's been building for some time now, with lots of frustrated people stuck in middle management, partly because legions of boomers in corner offices, spooked by the recession (and the real estate crash), aren't retiring on schedule.

????Another reason promotions are scarce these days is that, as you've seen, there are simply fewer management jobs. At the same time, the number of tech jobs is exploding. Job site TheLadders, for instance, studied about 60,000 employers in November and found that the growth rate of job titles with the word "manager" in them is about 25% lower than the average growth rate, and titles containing the word "director" are growing 50% more slowly than average. Of the top 10 fastest-growing job titles, seven were in tech or were tech-related. Only three -- staff accountant, paralegal, and administrative assistant -- pertained to jobs that required no STEM expertise.

????Many people in your position have adjusted their expectations accordingly. Consider: When consultants BlessingWhite surveyed full-time employees across the U.S. in December about their next career moves in 2014, they found that over half (58%) of upwardly mobile types expect to start on a new project, either where they work now or at some other company. Only 13% think they'll get promoted.