Does your job hold enough possibilities for growth?

Gretchen Rubin has a Happiness Project. (I am so glad other people have fun jobs, too.)

Her most recent post has to do with work and quotes John Ruskin:
"In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it."

I agree wholeheartedly and would add a fourth requisite: that there be a way to grow in it or into something else.

It seems that even in difficult economic times, humans need to feel success and, just as important, possibility. I have been hearing from clients who outgrew their jobs. One management wizard has been through successive positions in which he turned around a company, had it running like a top, was looking forward to managing a humming machine and was let go because the company decided someone less expensive could manage it now that he'd shaped and molded it.

If he wanted to be a consultant, he'd have the perfect resume. He doesn't. He likes staying with a company, growing with it, and bringing even more success.

I'm wondering if companies are trending toward treating permanent managers and directors as consultants, regardless of their employment status. Is anyone else seeing this phenomenon?