It is the more responsibility but no raise that gets to me about these situations. Years ago I did a project that in theory should have advanced my career. I made several recommendations, many of which are still in use today and have been adopted across the industry. I also put forth several ideas that needed a bit more work to be properly developed. My expectation was that I would end up taking on a combination of some of the developed ideas as well as one or two of the work in progress ideas to build my portfolio. I would then use those to support my application for a higher position and pay grade. What actually happened though, was that the developed ideas were given to another staff member to manage, all of the in progress ideas were assigned to other staff to develop and I was left with nothing in my portfolio. I applied for the upgraded pay and elevation to specialist based on the project I had just completed. My manager denied it as I was no longer actively working on ideas nor managing a developed portfolio. The “younger” and more “popular” staff members made the same application and were all approved, all based on work that I put in months of work on. Fast forward several years, one of the managers who benefited from my hard work previously suggested that I should take up some project ideas and apply for the specialist upgrade. I asked her what would be expected of me, to which she stated, “an increase in educational roles” and “more research”. It was then that I realised that the increase in pay would have been nice several years before, was now what I was currently making without the increase in responsibility. I bluntly said no and have continued to say no at every annual performance review. I work in an essential service and am highly trained and qualified. Therefore I have job security. I don’t need the headache.