Climbing the Career Ladder Does Not Make You Happy: Well-being Changes in the Years Before and After Becoming a Leader

Abstract

Subjective well-being tends to be higher in leaders vs. non-leaders. However, do these differences come from selection effects (e.g., because higher subjective well-being predisposes for occupational success) or from within-person well-being changes before and after becoming a leader? This question remains largely unresolved. Previous research suggests that becoming a leader might be a double-edged sword and affect subjective well-being positively but also negatively (e.g., due to more power but also more stress). Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 25,674), we examined (a) well-being differences between employees who did vs. did not start a leadership position and (b) well-being changes before and after becoming a leader. Compared to non-leaders, leaders were more satisfied with their lives, happier, and less sad in the years before and after starting a leadership position. Leaders became slightly more satisfied with their lives in the five years before and five years after becoming a leader. Happiness, sadness, and anxiety did not change, but anger increased after starting a leadership position. These findings support the idea that differences in subjective well-being between leaders and non-leaders largely stem from selection effects, while starting a leadership position might even lower specific well-being facets.

Working life as a double-edged sword: Opposing changes in subjective well-being surrounding the transition to work and retirement.

“…Means and standard deviations for life satisfaction, happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger in individual years before and after the transition can be found in Table S4 in the online supplemental materials. ASSELMANN AND SPECHT 8 suggest stability (Asselmann & Specht, 2022a, 2022b, 2023a, 2023b. In contrast to our study, previous research rarely distinguished between affective changes before versus after retirement, which might partially explain seemingly inconsistent results.…”

“…For example, sadness and anger decreased, while anxiety increased in the years before becoming a parent (Asselmann & Specht, 2023a). In addition, life satisfaction but also anger increased after starting a leadership position (Asselmann & Specht, 2023b). In other words, there were improvements in some but impairments in other facets of subjective well-being.…”

“…That is, well-being changes before versus after retirement went in different directions. Methodologically, it is thus essential to distinguish between anticipation and posttransition effects to avoid that opposing trends falsely suggest stability (Asselmann & Specht, 2022a, 2022b, 2023a, 2023b). In contrast to our study, previous research rarely distinguished between affective changes before versus after retirement, which might partially explain seemingly inconsistent results.…”

“…Consistent with previous research (Asselmann & Specht, 2022a, 2022b, 2023a, 2023b), we use the terms “anticipation” and “socialization” effects. However, as suggested by adaptation-level theories (Helson, 1964; Luhmann & Intelisano, 2018), posttransition socialization processes might be due to both social and asocial factors such as shifting standards and adaptation levels.…”

“…Line 3 is based on the intercept plus the long-term effect plus the socialization effect multiplied by the number of years after the transition. In line with previous publications (e.g., Asselmann & Specht, 2022b, 2023a, 2023b), these graphs are based on the estimates from our multilevel models and aim to visualize the combined effects of the transition-related predictors at different times (from Year −5 to Year 0: anticipation effect; from Year 0 to Year 1: short-term and socialization effect; from Year 1 to Year 5: socialization and long-term effect). Means and standard deviations for life satisfaction, happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger in individual years before and after the transition can be found in .…”