Promotions typically signal career progress—but for workers who view their job as a calling, they can feel like heartbreak. We examine this paradox in an inductive study of a U.S. healthcare provider that promotes dialysis nurses into clinic management roles, severing them from the direct patient care that is most meaningful to them. Drawing on 63 interviews, as well as archival and observational data, we find that promotions initially shatter nurses’ sense of calling, prompting feelings of profound loss. Many cope by clinging to their former role—particularly caregiving tasks—which derails their managerial transition. Over time, however, some engage in what we term calling reconfiguration in which they (1) intentionally let go of and distance themselves from their prior role, (2) elevate the construal of their calling to more abstract levels (e.g., by reframing some of their responsibilities as indirectly contributing to patient care), and—once they feel sufficiently settled in their new role—(3) selectively reconnect with caregiving tasks from their prior nursing role. We theorize calling reconfiguration as a process that explains when and how called workers rebuild the architecture of their callings, and why failing to do so impairs their transition to a managerial role. In addition to revealing the unique challenges faced by called workers seeking to advance in their careers, our work reveals a novel mechanism contributing to poor performance following promotion. For called workers, career advancement may not only be enabled by new skills, but also through the reconstruction of what is most meaningful to them.

Keywords: callings; meaningful work; promotions; role transitions