Can an approval rule escalate but never expire?

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Currently the approval rule that's in place for Individual Compensation is set so that the employee submits the request, it is routed to their line manager (based on supervisor hierarchy), the manager has 7 days to approve, then the request escalates to the next manager. The maximum escalation is set to 1, as we do not want it to continue escalating up the management chain. However, if the escalated manager also takes no action, the request expires. This isn't ideal for us, as the employee must create their request from scratch due to the managers' inaction.

Is there a way to retain the escalation, but if the escalated manager does not approve, the request does not expire, it remains with them? I feel like I'm missing something really obvious, but cannot see how to achieve this in BPM worklist.