There’s a strange idea that seems to exist in almost every workplace: the only way to progress in your career is to manage people.

You’re smashing your role, hitting your targets, maybe even the top performer on your team — so what happens next? Someone taps you on the shoulder and says, “Fancy managing a team?”

It’s supposed to be a compliment. A promotion. A badge of honour.
But if we’re honest… it’s a bit nuts, isn’t it?

We’ve done it ourselves. As business owners, we’ve fallen into the same trap — you spot a bright spark, and you think, maybe that magic will rub off on the rest of the team if they’re in charge. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it really, really doesn’t.

And when it doesn’t? You’ve taken someone who was brilliant at their job and saddled them with people problems, 1-to-1s, performance plans, and that ever-present low-level dread of “have I supported everyone properly today?”. That spark starts to fade.

We’ve spoken to so many recruitment managers who say the same thing:

“I used to love recruitment. Now, I barely get to do it anymore.”

Because managing people is a whole different ball game.
It’s not just doing your job and doing it well — it’s herding cats, coaching juniors, resolving conflict, running stand-ups, writing reviews, trying to stay calm when someone’s off sick again… and the list goes on.

We get it. We really do. At Jiggle, we cherish our team. We try to be the best leaders we can be. But if we’re being brutally honest? We don’t love people management. Not in the traditional sense. And from what we’re hearing, a lot of others don’t either.

So, here’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves:

Why is managing people the default path for career growth?
Why not reward excellence without dragging someone into a role they didn’t ask for?

Especially in recruitment, where success is often personal. You build your desk, your client relationships, your candidate pool. It’s your hustle. Your results. And yet somehow, if you’re doing it well, you’re suddenly expected to manage three others and a spreadsheet too.

That’s why we’re doing things differently at Jiggle.

We’re building a model that says: you don’t have to be a manager to grow.
You don’t have to be the god of all things. You don’t have to fix everyone else’s problems.

You can just be brilliant at what you do — and earn more doing it.

As a self-employed recruiter working with Jiggle, you get the freedom to grow on your own terms. You develop business skills, client skills, commercial confidence — real progression, without the people-management headache. And yes, you can still earn more. Sometimes a lot more.

So, recruiters — if you’re reading this and thinking, yep, this is me, don’t fall into the trap.

There’s another way to grow. One where you don’t have to fake being the world’s most patient person, or spend your days stuck in meetings about other people’s KPIs.
If you want to find out more, give us a shout.

We’ll tell you everything — including all the bits no one else warns you about.