Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch: A Security Guard's Lesson

Vlad had worked nights at the same office building for three years. When word got around that the day shift supervisor was retiring, he figured the job was his. He had seniority, a good record, and the building manager had all but said so.

So Vlad started acting like it was official. He told his wife they could afford a bigger apartment soon. He eased off overtime shifts, figuring he wouldn't need the extra money much longer. Other guards started deferring to him before anything was confirmed.

Then the building changed hands. New management took over the contract and posted the supervisor role publicly. Someone from outside the building got it. Vlad was still on nights, minus the overtime pay he'd quietly given up.

That's the risk of counting chickens before they hatch, even in a job built around staying alert. A hinted promotion isn't a signed offer. A compliment from a manager isn't a contract. Ownership changes, budgets shift, and decisions get made by people who never met you.

The fix is simple. Keep doing the job the same way regardless of what might be coming. Don't make financial decisions based on a promotion until it's confirmed in writing. Keep earning, learning and working as if nothing has changed, because nothing has, until it does.

Vlad did move up eventually, about a year later. But he stopped assuming anything after that. These days, when there's talk of a promotion, he treats it like anything else unconfirmed on his shift: worth watching, not worth acting on until it's real.

The chickens still have to hatch first. Everything else is just talk.