I work in the newsroom of a major newspaper in NYC. Last month my manager decided to quit the company. Since I amongst my colleagues am the one with the most experience, I was predictably offered the position. While I am in all modesty a top performer at my job; very dependable and willing to get the job done at all costs, I’m very hesitant to step into the position. For starters, I have no management experience whatsoever, and I believe that it’s a major stretch to go from managing myself for my entire working career, to managing a whole department basically overnight with no management training. In addition, the team that I’d be expected to lead consists of individuals who are fairly new to the job, and lack the training and experience necessary to be realistically productive, or have questionable work ethics and/or serious personality issues that affect their ability to work with others. Also, I currently belong to a worker’s union, which means guaranteed annual pay raises, holiday pay and overtime. Accepting a management position will mean that I will no longer be eligible for this, as my salary will be fixed. Sure, accepting a management position will mean more money upfront. But once you factor in all of the responsibility; dealing with absentee and/or “uninspired” workers, budgets, scheduling, performance reviews, and a multitude of other burdens, I begin to wonder if I’ll really be coming out ahead in the end. As mentioned before I work in a newsroom. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the newsroom work environment will know just how stressful it is even under the best of conditions, with all of the deadlines that have to be met daily. My day is stressful enough without the burdens of management to have to deal with as well. Stepping into a manager’s role would mean a daily stress level that I’m not too eager to experience. I’m also concerned that if I become the manager of the department, I’ll at the same time lose its best and most valuable worker…ME! No one else in the department has shown to exhibit as much knowledge, experience, or self-motivation as I do to the job. I very well can’t perform both tasks simultaneously, so I’d be starting without anyone whom I could truly depend on. I should also point out that for the past 2 years I’ve sat next to 3 managers; all of whom at one time or another cracked under the stress, and publicly declared that “the job wasn’t worth it, no matter how much money they made”! I’m also watching closely my director, who is currently filling in the manager’s spot until a permanent one is chosen. I see what his day is like and it’s not very appealing. Finally, we just recently had a pseudo terrorist attack at my building where everyone had to be evacuated RIGHT BEFORE DEADLINE! Now, I value my life over any job, but a daily newspaper HAS to get published. What do you do in a situation like that? Inevitably, my director had to go to a different floor within the building and finish the paper while the rest of us evacuated. Turns out that the attack posed no danger to anyone…this time, but what about the next time? Do I really want to step into an arena such as that? I’m almost 39 years old, and I realize that any advancement within a company will require me to accept a management role at some point in time. After saying all of this, I guess my real question is, do I just bite the bullet and take the position and all that comes with it? Or do I sit this one out, and hope for another opportunity that may present itself some time down the road (either in this department or with another one)?

The best way to decide whether to take a new position or not is to weigh the pros and cons. It looks like you have done that already and have come up with about 95% cons. Wait for a better opportunity.