3 ms·

Most people will stay at the same employer for their whole life, also because it is relatively hard and costly to lay people off. This leads to very static stru

Most people will stay at the same employer for their whole life, also because it is relatively hard and costly to lay people off. This leads to very static structures and wrong incentives. The US certainly manages to allow (some) employers to organize their operations for their maximum convenience, with the conditions of the workers essentially the workers' problem. This indeed allows efficiency - but only in the short term. In the long term, this effectively generates an ethos that some portion of people are disposable and this destroys society. Which is literally what can be seen in America today, the debt coming due in a multitude of ways.

deleted 6y ago
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siruncledrew 6y ago
That part caught me too... Do people really work with the same employer for 5+ years - multiple decades? Not judging the practice, it’s just such a very different concept to think about since a lot of my US friends are switching jobs like every 1.5-2yrs on average to play the game of “corporate ladders maze” as they say. I think if I challenged one of my friends to stay at an employer for 10 years, they would have a very hard time doing that without feeling like they are missing out on more money.
- kakwa_ 6y ago
  It is quite common where I live (France). Personally, I've been working for ~9 years now, I worked for my first employer for a bit more than 5 years, my current job being the second job in my professional life. And I have a few friends still working for my first employer and who started there at roughly the same time as me. IIRC, my team leader actually started working for this company the same years I was born. In my current job, I think I'm the only one in my team without the "5 years reward trophy". At the same time, I've seen a few friends switching jobs every 2 to 3 years, but it tends to be more an early career thing and they settle after 2 or 3 jobs. You have people who are jumping from job to job, but it's not the majority (at least for profession like Engineering, fields like Retail or Logistic is another matter).

deleted 6y ago

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siruncledrew 6y ago

That part caught me too... Do people really work with the same employer for 5+ years - multiple decades? Not judging the practice, it’s just such a very different concept to think about since a lot of my US friends are switching jobs like every 1.5-2yrs on average to play the game of “corporate ladders maze” as they say. I think if I challenged one of my friends to stay at an employer for 10 years, they would have a very hard time doing that without feeling like they are missing out on more money.

kakwa_ 6y ago
It is quite common where I live (France). Personally, I've been working for ~9 years now, I worked for my first employer for a bit more than 5 years, my current job being the second job in my professional life. And I have a few friends still working for my first employer and who started there at roughly the same time as me. IIRC, my team leader actually started working for this company the same years I was born. In my current job, I think I'm the only one in my team without the "5 years reward trophy". At the same time, I've seen a few friends switching jobs every 2 to 3 years, but it tends to be more an early career thing and they settle after 2 or 3 jobs. You have people who are jumping from job to job, but it's not the majority (at least for profession like Engineering, fields like Retail or Logistic is another matter).