4 ms·

I'm working at a big company where most employees have worked for a very long time. On my team, besides me, the person who has worked the shortest time is 9 yea

I'm working at a big company where most employees have worked for a very long time. On my team, besides me, the person who has worked the shortest time is 9 years. The next one after that: 15 years. Most managers and senior engineers have worked here for 20 years or more. They've constructed their whole life around this job, it's almost sad. If in their 20 years have switched jobs, it was within the company. I'm not trying to be patronizing, it's just that The Company is not doing well, and I think there will be very tough times ahead for many these people, and most of them seem to think The Company will always be there to pay the bills. There's this group think going on that "we've had similar crises before, but we always get through it". This time is different, but they won't realize it. The world is moving a lot quicker today. I think our younger generation is much more weary of being loyal to corporations. We've seen what happens in economic crises, and most of our lives have been just that: one big economic crisis after another.

pnathan 13y ago
I think hanging around at a single place is all right, but you have to be really focused on staying current. I've seen people who didn't and the result was not pretty.
mediaman 13y ago
As an employer and owner, I don't have a problem with people moving around in their career. I expect it. I stay on great terms with them, give them flowers when they move on, wish them good luck, and invite them to stop by socially later. Most people stay for several years or sometimes much more. Staying less than two years, and certainly less than a year, can be so short as to be counterproductive, so that's less welcome, though we always do self-introspection to see if we did something to drive them away (it's rare that someone stays that short a time). But if someone's been there three years or more, they've contributed a lot to the company, and I really do want them to do well, and they have no obligation to be "loyal" to the company. Sometimes they work for a while elsewhere and then come back. That's great too.
- jared314 13y ago
  That definitely sounds like a culture that values the people involved in the company's past, present, and future. But, most positions I have had were with companies where the people who left were effectively dead. No one spoke their name at work. No one mentioned their previous efforts or ideas. The company photo was updated. The only thing that sometimes persisted was their name on the source code commits. Employees with a decade of service just vanished.
vacri 13y ago
This time is different, but they won't realize it. I worked for a similar company, and constantly predicted the fiscal end of it. The CEO was siphoning off money any way he could. I was let go in 2009, and at that point the half-yearly general staff meetings were so mundane, I just stopped going and asked others "how many times did he say 'tighten our belts'. I visited last year and the mood had changed - the dispatch staff said that they had product and orders to ship, but no money for cardboard boxes to ship them in. They are still somehow going this year.
kamaal 13y ago
Many people have this problem. Basically the problem is getting institutionalized. Once you are into that it gets difficult to quit by the day.

pnathan 13y ago

I think hanging around at a single place is all right, but you have to be really focused on staying current. I've seen people who didn't and the result was not pretty.

mediaman 13y ago

As an employer and owner, I don't have a problem with people moving around in their career. I expect it. I stay on great terms with them, give them flowers when they move on, wish them good luck, and invite them to stop by socially later. Most people stay for several years or sometimes much more. Staying less than two years, and certainly less than a year, can be so short as to be counterproductive, so that's less welcome, though we always do self-introspection to see if we did something to drive them away (it's rare that someone stays that short a time). But if someone's been there three years or more, they've contributed a lot to the company, and I really do want them to do well, and they have no obligation to be "loyal" to the company. Sometimes they work for a while elsewhere and then come back. That's great too.

jared314 13y ago
That definitely sounds like a culture that values the people involved in the company's past, present, and future. But, most positions I have had were with companies where the people who left were effectively dead. No one spoke their name at work. No one mentioned their previous efforts or ideas. The company photo was updated. The only thing that sometimes persisted was their name on the source code commits. Employees with a decade of service just vanished.

vacri 13y ago

This time is different, but they won't realize it. I worked for a similar company, and constantly predicted the fiscal end of it. The CEO was siphoning off money any way he could. I was let go in 2009, and at that point the half-yearly general staff meetings were so mundane, I just stopped going and asked others "how many times did he say 'tighten our belts'. I visited last year and the mood had changed - the dispatch staff said that they had product and orders to ship, but no money for cardboard boxes to ship them in. They are still somehow going this year.

kamaal 13y ago

Many people have this problem. Basically the problem is getting institutionalized. Once you are into that it gets difficult to quit by the day.