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Every website out there says you have to job hop to get decent raises. It's become the new folk wisdom.
I know plenty of people who are doing very well at the same place for years, myself included.
People used to make enough to buy houses. That tied them down because it's a major expense to move.
Now, with housing becoming too expensive, people rent. But that makes moving easier.
When you are starting out, it's usually a shock to learn how crappily you are treated by an employer. It's easy to hope that the next one will be better. Eventually, by about the fourth employer, you figure out that they are all pretty much alike.
I attribute it to the rise in the number of managers and management layers. The producer level needs to support many more manager levels, who incidentally make more money than producers do. Blame it on the advent of the master's degree in business administration.
Side effects are a management that may understand the business but not understand the production end, which makes it harder on the producers yet syphons away the profits. Thus wage increases are minimal, while the cost of living outpaces. Of course our needs and expectations of ownership of "stuff" has increased massively due to marketing and availability too.
I have a family member that has worked as 30 years District Manager of Rite Aid (aka Walgreens now thanks to mergers) who states they handle her no different than a brand new employee. She's burned out with a number of things including the lack of appreciation and is hanging on until she can retire in a couple years.
No
-People moving around for better opportunities & higher pay
-Short sighted, short attention spans
-Upset they aren't the CEO after 6 months
-Want awards for showing up
-They like the new job "honeymoon" period
Maybe the reason why our grandparents generation stayed at the same company for decades is because they didn't have massive rent inflation (I've heard stories in my area of people going to renew their lease and learn that the cost went up by $700/mo) and internet bills going up for unexplained reasons and so forth
Many times they stuck around because there was a traditional pension to vest in. Today with 401ks that you take with you it makes no sense to stay at one place if you can find a better off elsewhere.
Job hopping has less to do with rising cost of living and everything to do with the pervasive mentality that in order to get ahead, you have to switch jobs every few years.
Job hopping has less to do with rising cost of living and everything to do with the pervasive mentality that in order to get ahead, you have to switch jobs every few years.
The pervasive mentality has mostly been proven true. If you can get a 20% base salary increase and a more competitive skill set by switching jobs, vs. staying at your current role (and skill set) while hoping for maybe a 5% base raise at your current role, which would you choose? The rational, economic decision is to change jobs and take the 20% increase. With at-will employment being what it is, it's actually riskier to cement yourself in a single role than to job-hop and grow your skill-set. Unfortunately, the longer we stay at a given role, it's easy to get lulled into a false sense of 'loyalty' which, believe me, your employer does not share.
If you are laid off today, you are only as good as the relevance and marketability of your current skill-set, which is often kept relevant by applying and interviewing for new roles on a frequent basis.* It's always best to assume that you can be laid off at any time, and tailor your resume and skills against this assumption.
*Some industries may be an exception, such as certain Public Sector and union-backed roles where it is much more difficult to lay off an employee. My comments are directed towards so-called 'at-will' employment in the private sector.
Job hopping has less to do with rising cost of living and everything to do with the pervasive mentality that in order to get ahead, you have to switch jobs every few years.
The ones who switch are the ones who can.
Also, it allows you to leave your previous reputation behind and appear as a fresh face.
It's largely because certain areas are desirable and jobs are clustering in what seems like increasingly fewer metros. That leads to more people pouring into those areas, with costs rising often substantially.
There are many smaller towns and rural areas of the country where the cost of living is not rising much, but there are few professional opportunities. If I can only make $25,000 here in rural TN vs. $60,000 in Nashville, where am I going to go?
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