Can I decline being promoted to Corporal?

A lot of answers will be against your attitude. Listen no one will take care of you except you. Oftentimes in the military you will work above your grade. I understand completely where you coming from. As a Specialist I was put in charge of a team. I had to counsel 5 guys, be responsible for my equipment and do all the duties of a Sergeant to include training battle buddies that sometimes know the equipment better than I did. But this is how it works. Take it as an experience to learn to be a leader. As a Corporal they will give you more room to mess up and learn. As a sergeant you are expected to be on top of your game at all times. Don't let any of the wackos here tell you that you don't deserve to be promoted. You do. You need counseling and that s what your seniors do for you. Finally remember that you work for your reputation.

You can always do what Pvt Forcucci did.
Whenever he found out that the promotion warrant was on the CO's desk, he would go to the E-Club and wait for an MP to show up. He would then have 1 beer and go punch the MP. He figured that if anybody deserved getting punched, it was the MP.
This, of course, would be reported to the CO who would then shred the promotion warrant and bust Forcucci down from PFC to Pvt.
He, like you, didn't want any responsibility for other people. He just wanted to do his job and, if needed, was more than willing to fight.
He was also one of the last people I knew, who retired after 20 years of service as a PFC. Shortly after that is when the USMC said that you couldn't stay for 20 unless you made E7.

I was laterally promoted to Cpl. Did not goes as planned. Frustrated me badly so I requested a lateral transfer back to SPC. And it bit me in the ass about two weeks later. Hit with a bar to reenlistment. I had reenlisted 5 months prior do figured I had time to earn the bar lifted. Except I ran face first into a wall full of medboard.. and that was all she wrote.
My advice? Take the hard stripes, learn early good and bad leaders can show you. Grow through failing the early stuff and making those moments to key learning points. While E-4 Mafia clearly has more fun, those who make E-5 tend to burn out fast. Use the hardstripe time to understand how the next level of management operates in the actual and theoretical realms. Reach out to different SENIOR NCOs on how to improve your strengths, transform you weaknesses, learn why and how the job is supposed to function. Better to learn it as a struggling corporal than get it thrown at you as a newly pinned e5

I don’t know what the pay is now but in my day there was no difference in pay between a Sp4 and hard stripe Cpl. I also recently read that all Sp4 will convert to Corporal’s stripes.

Soooo,
This is about money??
Not leadership? Not living up to the NCO Creed? If I was in your chain of Command and I read this, you’d never become a leader in my Company or Battalion, I would pull you from your slot in Ranger school, if I could, it sounds like you are on the road to be that guy, don’t be that guy, you know that guy??
The one who everyone wonders how did they become a leader????

We use to say
“For God and Country “

They say the military is changing, no the soldiers are. You need to adjust and rethink why you wear the uniform.

CSM Blair

Are you in it just for the money? You are probably already doing the work! I was a corporal and it made me a better Sgt.

Once you pass BLC and are promotable IAW Milper messages 17-21 (I believe) you are laterally promoted. No 4187 you are just an NCO.

Dude, take it from me …. I declined a SGT promo, big mistake

Promotions, in part, are not about extra pay and other duties, it places one in the position to take care of others. Train them and drill them to get whatever the MOS may be to get the job done AND to make it home. Leadership is never about you, the pay, or a perfect performance evaluation. Uncle Sam places the lives of your people in your hands to fulfill the mission. Part of that mission is to bring’em home. What better way to take care of people than to be better trained yourself.

Welcome to the new Army. If you dont take the Cpl you are stuck at specialist 4. Back in my day specialist went all the way to Spec 9. It was a way of rewarding the technical troops for their expertise.