Why Good Developers Are Promoted into Unhappiness (2007)

When that company experienced difficult times in 2001, I transitioned into contracting, which I did for about three years before taking a position as the Application Development and Database Supervisor at the City of Pasadena, directly responsible for the management and supervision of 10 developers and DBAs. I accepted and what started as a two-person team evolved into 10 developers cranking on the largest software project our company had every undertaken. The end result of promoting your best developers is at best a few unhappy months or years as they struggle with their unhappiness and their desire to return to code, while (perhaps) not wanting to disappoint you.

Source: robwalling.com