Traditional thinking is that employees should stay at a company for the long term – or at least for three years. But many workers switch swiftly for greater career rewards.
In the past 18 months, Debra, 29, has had three jobs. In that time, the digital marketer has fast-tracked her career. With each move, she’s worked with higher-profile clients, gained greater experience and acquired deeper skills. There has also been another significant pay-off: Debra’s job moves have meant her salary has grown by 30%.
Workers like Debra who forego the traditional career-ladder climb, and instead jump from role to role, have often been stigmatised. In the 1970s, job hopping was likened to vagrancy and branded ‘Hobo Syndrome’ by industrial psychologists. As such, the practice received a bad rap in many quarters.
In a tight labour market and an environment where companies show less and less loyalty to workers, many of those who job hop are reaping the rewards, gaining sizable pay rises and greatly accelerating their career progression. Is this approach to employment sustainable?
Source: https://www.coburgbanks.co.uk
For past generations, the tacit contract of work implied that companies would reward loyalty with progression and pay. This arrangement, however, began to break down in the 1980s. Many companies downsized and reduced overheads. By the 1990s, a new mentality had developed: job hopping.
Recently, job hopping – is seen as switching roles once a year. US Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that not only do employees aged under 34 change jobs most frequently (an average of 1.3 years for employees aged 20 to 24 in January 2020, versus 4.9 years for those aged 35 to 44), but they’re doing so more often. The median tenure has been shrinking since 2010.
Following the Great Resignation and subsequent hiring crisis, job hopping seems to have swelled even further. In a February 2022 LinkedIn study of more than 20,000 US workers, 25% of Gen Zers and 23% of millennials said they hoped or planned to leave their current employers within the next six months.
In many cases, when workers job hop, they effectively take bigger strides down their career Path. Experience, skills and interaction are assets they collect. Other reasons for job hop include slow internal processes in current company and lack of meaningful work.
Employees are often financially rewarded for switching roles, too. In the UK, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows workers who change jobs within a year of beginning a role have consistently higher hourly wage growth over those who stay. Workers aged 16 to 24 make the biggest salary gains. In the US, an analysis of 18 million worker salaries showed the wages of job switchers in 2021 outpaced those who stayed in a role. In some industries, workers received nearly a 12% pay rise.
However, job hopping often comes with a stigma attached – one that’s enshrined by older and more senior hiring managers. The stigma may also come from a generational divide: those who have spent decades at a company, and reached the top of the career ladder, are often its key decision makers.
Over the longer term, workers with a long track record of job hopping may eventually risk hitting a wall, dramatically limiting career options. The constant churn of leaving a job and beginning a new one can also form a potentially problematic behavioural pattern. Employees facing problems at work can be tempted to quit rather than grind it out, impacting their long-term career prospects.
While ONS research shows job hoppers typically experience greater hourly wage growth, the same data shows they’re still generally paid less overall per hour than workers who remain in longer-term employment. Rather than gradually accumulating expertise and social capital at a company, job hoppers can find themselves stuck in a loop of quitting and starting over, forever in a transitory state between new and old roles.
On a longer term, job hopping for a marginal increase in pay will be looked down upon. It also may mean employers cannot rely on these “transient” people who only want to boost their personal remuneration at the expense of loyalty, experience and improvement in skill set. It seems to be a Gen Z and millenials phenomenon!
Reference:
The case for job hopping, Worklife, BBC
No comments:
Post a Comment