Should you congratulate someone on a promotion?

Over the years, I’ve watched a former colleague climb the professional ladder. He started as a mid-level manager, then moved to a department head, and later to an executive position. It didn’t stop there. He left the company where he’d built his career to join a bigger competitor in a high-ranking role. Some time later, he was promoted to CEO of that company. All in all, his journey looks like one of success and well-deserved congratulations, but… 
 
Now I’ve learned he’s no longer the CEO of that company; instead, he’s been “promoted” to an even higher international position… in another European country. Should you congratulate him on such a promotion? I have my doubts. 
 
It’s certainly a more significant role with a better salary, but it forces him to uproot all his family ties since he must relocate abroad. What about his family? His friends? His daily life with hobbies, leisure, and enjoyment? His connection to the social environment where he grew up and developed? All of that gets shattered as he lands (who knows if alone or with his family) as an expatriate. Is that promotion and salary worth it? 
 
Perhaps when someone is single and the promotion involves working in a field they love, moving to another country feels like a reward worth celebrating. But when you have a family, a home, maybe a mortgage, relatives, friends, a close-knit environment, the promotion might come at too high a cost. 
 
What’s more important: professional success or personal and family fulfillment? What’s more valuable: a high-paying executive role or a lower position doing what you truly love? 
 
A former coworker once told me how her friends were shocked when she said she loved going to work because she enjoyed it so much, had fun doing it, and got paid for it. Isn’t that true happiness—enjoying the work you love while earning a living? 
 
Because when you’re torn from your environment, what awaits you after work each day? A hotel room in a foreign country? An empty apartment in another city? You, alone, without loved ones nearby—or having dragged them along, uprooting them from their own lives. 
 
No matter how prestigious the role or how high the salary, there comes a point when a promotion isn’t a reward but a punishment.

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