By Gabriel Soto
For decades, the rhythm of working life followed a familiar beat: start at the bottom, prove yourself, climb a ladder rung by rung. Titles changed, salaries rose, and ambition was rewarded with stability. But look around today’s workplace—whether a gig platform, a start-up, or even a corporate office—and you’ll find fewer ladders and more flat floors. Promotions haven’t just slowed; in many places, they’ve quietly vanished.
The Vanishing Rungs
The economics are straightforward. Traditional corporations once relied on layers of middle management, each rung a chance for advancement. As companies slim down to cut costs, those layers shrink. At the same time, gig platforms and contract work, designed for flexibility, eliminate ladders altogether. There’s no “senior driver” for a ride-hailing app, no “associate-plus” for food delivery. Work is fragmented, rewards are short-term, and upward mobility is redefined—or erased.
One recent study of Fortune 500 firms found that the number of mid-level managerial roles dropped by nearly 20% in a decade, even as overall employment grew. In other words, more jobs but fewer promotions.
Flat Is the New Normal
Advocates of flat hierarchies tout freedom: fewer bosses, more autonomy, the chance for anyone to pitch ideas. But the economics of career growth don’t disappear—they just shift. Without vertical progression, ambition is often channeled sideways, into hopping companies or reinventing one’s role entirely.
The result is what I call “career patchwork.” Workers assemble advancement not by climbing within a firm, but by stitching together gigs, lateral moves, and personal branding. That can produce flexibility, but it also shifts risk squarely onto workers, who must constantly recalibrate their trajectory in uncertain markets.
Ambition Rewritten
The paradox is that workers are still ambitious, but ambition itself is changing shape. Instead of chasing titles, many now chase influence, visibility, or project ownership. A software engineer may never become a “senior vice president,” but they can become known as the architect of a successful open-source project. Prestige substitutes for promotion.
But prestige cannot pay rent. When raises and pensions are no longer tethered to structured advancement, inequality widens. Those with social capital and mobility thrive; those without are stuck in place. The ladder is gone, but the cliff remains.
Building New Structures
The disappearance of promotions poses a policy question as much as a personal one: if the labor market no longer rewards loyalty with advancement, how should society adapt? Portable benefits, universal skills training, and recognition of gig work as legitimate labor are partial answers. Inside companies, experimentation with “skills-based progression” may replace titles with certifications, allowing workers to accrue value even in flat organizations.
The ladder may be obsolete, but it does not have to leave workers stranded. Economies grow when ambition has structure; the challenge now is to build new scaffolding for the 21st century of work.
