As a former pension actuary, the move from pension to 401k was primarily driven by desire to de-risk on the employer side. Plain and simple. Yes, portability is an advantage for employees, but let's not get it confused. The current hiring marketplace is a symptom of the disincentivizing of staying long-term, not the other way around.

Lol I relate to this, too.

Probably the most fun I had at a job was fast food. I just happened to be working with other really cool people I could talk to and joke around with. We'd close and then hang out in the parking lot for 30 minutes just talking about random shit.

It was tough, stressful work and I knew the pay was bad, but I busted my ass for the other people around me because they did the same for me and I didn't want to let them down. I took pride in it and definitely went the extra mile despite how looked down upon the job is.

I dont hate work, but I probably have different goals and values in life compared to a lot of you guys, and those things just don't align with busting my ass for Corpo when I know for a fact they will stab in the back at a moments notice despite my best efforts.

People job hop more and feel less connected to their jobs for many reasons.

1. As previous mentioned. Pay is stagnant if you don't move positions. Employers like to start people low and give them 3-5% raises every year. Which does not keep up with the market. So if you don't move positions every 2 years you are losing potential income.

2. Employer loyalty. Younger generation has learned that lay offs are always around the corner. It is all about the profit margin or stock price. You're employer will lay you off the minute it looks good for their bottom line. Why do you need to feel some sort of obligation or loyalty to your employer when they will show you none.

3. New age thinking. My dad will work until he dies. He will never have enough for retirement. This guy has put in 60-80 hours a week his entire life. Started working when he was 15. I don't want to live to work. The pay off just isn't there and they keep moving back the retirement age. Saying social security will collapse before I even get there.

My first thought when I saw this article is good. People really should only be putting in 40 hours a week. Work hard in life but damn our time here is short. You need to have a life outside of work and enjoy it.

Depends on the size of the company I think. I've been at the same company for 25 years but I've changed jobs 8 times, most of them moving up.

I work 50 hours a week most generally

I'll always struggle to stay within scope because I want to help and don't like pushing off work or ignoring people... yet as I'm sure you're well aware of in IT, those small requests are endless and even one "simple" thing can end up taking 5 times longer than expected.... and when you have 6 or 8 hours of meetings in a day, even 15 minutes is a good chunk of your free time.

I think that's a two way street though.... yeah, they can fire you tomorrow or may not deliver on raises/promotions, but you can also quit today or maybe your productivity drops post-raise/promotion for whatever reason.

Hiring and training are expensive and I've been annoyed before when I spend significant time training up someone just for them to job hop in a year or two (especially if it takes 18 months to get up to speed).

Of course, the flip side is similar to how a new customer gets more benefits for signing up than existing customers get for sticking around.... if you don't treat your existing employees well, they have every incentive to job hop.

I don't know if I would make a definite statement on that as I think it comes down to company culture more than remote or on site. I feel more connected with my current role now, where I am remote 99.9% of the time than I did vs the last on site role I held.

The team I was on for the on site role was treated like a bastard stepchild so didn't really care beyond the check and free ticket perk.

In this role there's more integration among the teams, across the board and they fly me in once a year for a brief on site visit. The other 362 days I am half way across the country.

The job in between was fully remote and everyone kept to themselves. It was terrible and I was glad to leave.

>select all
>delete

Problem solved

You find a way to make it work. For me, it's just less time for my degenerate behavior (poker and drinking)

I think the American system has historically rewarded hard work and hustle, and there's always been work to do. The European system has been in place for so long that there are fewer opportunities to hustle and be entrepreneurial. I wonder if perhaps that's a natural evolution of society when you no longer have expansion into the unsettled west or the wilds of Britain or wherever.

Of course, the key to the American system is being rewarded for more work. You clear land or you get a paper route or you drive Uber in the evenings or you write one more report to get a new client, and you're better off in the long run. I wonder if holding a job in a large corporation offers that opportunity. It probably does for some people and doesn't for others.

In my case, I had plenty of opportunity in this company. Being "corporate" has expanded my pay by 300% over the years. At the same time, I never had the uncertainty or instability that job hopping creates. I probably could have made even more money if I were more ambitious but I guess pursuit of wealth has never really driven me that much.

A lot of retail now has strict policies to keep their employees below 40 hours. There's other company policies that limits many employees to under 32? hours. This limit is set based on state definitions of a full time employees.

Most states that I know of are either 28 hours or 32. It's so they don't have to pay full-time benefits, namely health insurance. Another side "benefit" of the ACA. People are working two or even three jobs and are still forced to buy expensive government insurance.

Probably depends on the company culture a bit. The job I had from 2021-2024 was fully remote (with occasional days in the office, but not much), and I felt very connected there. But we did a lot to foster that - multiple standup meetings a week, recurring 1:1s with team members to connect, a time every other week to collaborate and brainstorm on big-picture challenges. I'm still close friends with a few from my team.

And then we got a new Chief Product Officer who laid off my entire team despite our former CEO calling us one of the most impactful teams in the organization. So again, it's a little tough to feel motivated to work hard when a random shift in executive leadership can result in you getting booted out of nowhere.