The call you're supposed to ignore, and why the smartest women always take it
At 11:40 on the morning after your best quarter yet, a number you don't recognize lights up your screen. You let it ring out. The voicemail is from a recruiter whose name you recognize, and she won't say what role she has in mind. Fifty years old, you already run the company's operations in all but title, and you are well into the year you spent ten years preparing for. The board values you. The CEO relies on you. The plan is on track. Every practical instinct says to delete the message, and you have already deleted the last three.
You understand exactly what that call might be about. It's the market asking what you are worth. What you need to decide is whether skipping it would cost you more than answering.
Path one Let it go
You silence the voicemail alert and go back to your plan. The cost is quiet but builds over time. Recruiters keep notes, and after three polite silences your name slides onto a different list, the one they stop dialing. Your value in the job market rests with the people who are in a position to notice you. If no one is calling, no one is looking. This is the year your value is highest, and by declining the call you have decided not to learn what that value is.
Path two Take the call, for information only
Call her back and say the sentence that commits you to nothing. "I'm content where I am, though I make a habit of returning these calls. Tell me about the role, and if it isn't right for me I'll tell you who it might suit." The cost is half an hour and the small risk that you enjoy what you hear. The payoff is a number, a title, and a sense of how the market sees you, often a level above where your current employer does.
Path three Go through the process
You sit through the interviews during your best year, in an organization where someone will eventually notice the Tuesday afternoons. The cost is attention you can't spare, an awkward loyalty question if it leaks, and the real chance of an offer you will have to decide on. The payoff is leverage, and a straight answer to a question you have never asked aloud: what would it actually take to get me to leave?
Advice from seasoned leaders
Leaders who have run large organizations are unanimous and quick about it: always take the call. Not because you are leaving, but because the call is information, and it arrives for free. Deloitte's 2025 study of 7,500 women revealed that just 5% intend to remain with their present employer beyond five years. The women who move well were not restless. They knew their number long before they needed it.
They also point out that the recruiter will tell you something your boss never will: which role the market thinks you are suited for. When a recruiter raises a chief operating officer role while your current title still reads senior vice president, treat the approach as a signal of interest and not as a finished deal. It is a correction, and you can put it to use inside your own building without ever leaving.
Verdict reached
Take the second route, no exceptions. This isn't really a decision. Think of it as a thirty-minute market check in which you learn what someone in Greater Hartford is willing to pay, and you walk away with your dignity and your bargaining position intact. Pursue Option C only when the figure on the table leaves you stunned into silence.
Cast ballot
What's your reply? Let it slide, answer the call, or commit to the full process. Cast your vote below. Next week we will share the findings, including the single figure that left most of you speechless.