To find colleague’s zen like contentment inspirational?

It maddens me that "progression" seems to mean "promotion to a business and/or personnel management role". Heaven forbid you work well at your role until you're very, very good at it. The skillset to master the work is different to the skillset for management, but only management is seen as "progression". Recognising the worth of excellent employees makes more sense to me than pushing them into roles they dislike and are unsuited for in the name of supposed progress.

My DH is like this. He's an architect, and being a qualified architect is the first rung of the ladder really - after that the roles include architect but a lot of people management, project management and business dealings (eg bringing in new business)
He just wants to design buildings. He's very good at it, and doesn't care that he's now 15yrs older than most the people at his level. He's dropped his hours to part time because our outgoings are low and he'd rather have the free time. He's technically very good and it took his bosses a long time to accept he didn't want to progress!

From my experience it can sometimes be hard for people to sustain a career if they aren’t interested in progression. Over time, their salaries increase and then there are people coming up ten years behind them who are good at the job and cheaper. I know some law firms have created a counsel layer for senior lawyers who aren’t pushing for partnership. That’s probably what I would look at if I was in the right area.

As the child of a man who remained working in the same low-paid manual job for the same company his entire life (literally — he started as a messenger boy at 13), continually refusing offers of promotion to foreman because it would be (I quote) ‘too much hassle’, I’m not sure I see this as necessarily admirable. Yes, we were very poor and needed the money, and this man says he doesn’t, but still. Lack of desire to progress might be admirable, might not be.

You come across people like this in all walks of life. I had a fantastic college tutor years ago and when asked why he hadn’t gone into lecturing he simply said “why bother when it’s more stress for not much more money”. I don’t know if it’s zen as such, just seems a bit apathetic.

Agreed. One of my former colleagues has gone into law in a big firm in London and he’s not the man he was as an academic. Not that we aren’t also stressed and frantically paddling too - we are - but he seems a bit soulless to me now.

My son is a lawyer. He is the most zen person I know. He's very very good at his job too. I think it helps that he knows his worth, and doesn't feel the need to compete with his mostly older colleagues.

I hope this is me… though I doubt I’m that inspirational.

Im a band 6 allied health professional, which is one level above band 5 graduate entry level. I have played around with applying for band 7 roles twice, didn’t get them, and have always been profoundly relieved afterwards. I like seeing patients. I like taking students and teaching them that they have what it takes and the work is enjoyable. I feel lucky in the job I have.

I think any of us who can afford to stay at the level we like are lucky, lucky, lucky.

I don't know of any zen like lawyers, dh is one. They tend to be stressed out workaholics but hide it well. Calm on the surface and paddling like hell underneath.

If he’s happy that’s great. Someone can be equally zen and happy climbing the ladder.