The call you're supposed to ignore, and why the smartest women always take it

Around 11:40 on the morning following your best quarter yet, an unknown number flashes across your screen in Sacramento. You let it ring out. The voicemail is from a recruiter whose name you recognize, but the message will not say which role she has in mind. You are 50, running the operation as chief operating officer in everything but name, deep in the year you spent a decade working toward. Your board values you. The CEO relies on you. The plan is on track. Every sensible reflex tells you to delete the message, and you have already deleted the last three.

You know what the call really is about. The market is wondering what your skills are worth. The genuine issue is whether you can absorb the cost of never learning what you could have earned.

Option one. Let it go

You clear the voicemail from your phone and get back to the roadmap. Over the months, the harm grows slowly and without much notice. Recruiters maintain lists, and after three polite silences your name slides onto one they stop calling. Those who witness your contributions are the ones who set your worth in the marketplace. When nobody makes contact, nobody is evaluating you. The year you are winning is also the year your price peaks, and you have just chosen not to learn what that price is.

Option two. Answer for information only

You return the call with a neutral, noncommittal line that keeps every door open. "I'm content in my role, yet I make a point of taking these conversations. Tell me about the role, and if it's not right for me, I'll tell you who it might suit." The cost is half an hour and the slight chance you like what you hear. Such discussions can yield a higher salary figure, a stronger title, and an outside view of your worth that frequently surpasses what your own employer thinks.

Option three. Go through the whole process

You sit for the interviews, in the middle of your best year, in a building where someone will sooner or later notice the Tuesday afternoons. On the other side, you will have to protect scarce time, handle awkward questions about loyalty if the news travels, and possibly weigh a serious offer. The payoff is leverage, and a clear answer to a question you have likely never said aloud: what would it take to get me to leave?

Guidance from seasoned executives

Executives who have led large organizations say it without hesitation: take the call. You need not intend to switch jobs, since the conversation simply gives you data at no real expense. Deloitte's 2025 survey of 7,500 women in the Sacramento region and across California found that only 5% expect to stay with their current employer for more than five years. The women from Roseville to Davis who moved on successfully were not simply feeling unsettled. They knew their number before anyone forced the issue.

Recruiters, they note, will share an insight your manager likely never will, namely the role the market thinks suits you best. Suppose a firm in Roseville or Folsom is hunting for a chief operating officer while your current employer still files you as a senior vice president; that gap is a signal, not a job offer. Read that way, the mismatch becomes a useful lever for renegotiating your position from within, even if you never plan to leave Elk Grove or Davis.

The result

Option two, every time. It is not really a decision. It is a half-hour check on the market, and the women who make it are never caught off guard by their own worth or by anyone else's assessment of it. Pick Option C only when the figure you hear is so startling that you need a moment to steady yourself.

Your choice

Which would you do? Dismiss the call, answer it, or pursue the full process. Cast your vote below. We will publish the results next week, including the figure that had most of you reaching for a chair.