Reading 02: Life’s too short for one job
My 21 years of life so far have been quite segmented, presenting new challenges and environments every few years. Right now, I’m at college attending the University of Notre Dame, but I haven’t been here forever. No, four years ago I was a high school student, and before that I was in middle school.
Young life in contemporary society is defined predominantly by chunks of 3–5 years. However, until recently (and often even recently), people are expected to find themselves a job and stick with it for decades. After frequent and change and excitement of new challenges in their young lives, people often live a dramatically different and much more static life for the next few decades. A person might find a job at 18 or 22 and then stay there until they received their gold watch or money clip to honor their decades of loyal service at the age of 65.
Thankfully, this trend is changing.
Switching jobs with relative frequency is becoming much more commonplace and acceptable in the modern world. Someone who spends a few years at a company before moving on elsewhere is no longer stigmatized as flaky or disloyal.
Personally, I’m glad for this shift in public perception. In trying to predict my career, I believe I’ll be much more prone to spend a few years at a company before trying something new. I know that my personality does not harmonize with the idea of remaining at a company for decades.
I talked with many people at my internship this summer that told me about their 20–30 years at the company, and I know for sure that’s not for me. Some people are more comfortable in routine and would rather not experience significant change if it’s avoidable.
I am the exact opposite. Although I’m not immune to some of the anxieties of change, I do still love and seek out change when I can. As a result, I’m fairly certain those qualities will probably transfer over to how I live my career.
Switching jobs with some frequency also gives a few career benefits as a result. For one, it would very likely cause me to be more engaged and interested in my job than I might be otherwise if I were to stay at one job for a prolonged period of time. Being at one job for too long would likely cause me to get fatigued and disinterested, which would disservice both myself and the company I work for.
Additionally, working for multiple different companies would provide me a wider and deeper knowledge and experience base. Again, this would greatly benefit both myself and the companies I work for.
In my opinion, the idea of company loyalty does not really exist in its classical sense. The term reflects the idea that employees should have commitment to the companies for which they work. Alternatively, the term can reflect a company’s commitment to their employees.
That type of idea has died in modern society. Companies often aren’t very loyal to their employees nowadays, and employees aren’t often that loyal to their companies either. I don’t think either side necessarily needs to be loyal and committed to the other either.
The modern work environment is much more fluid on both sides than it has been in the past. As a result, companies have tried to limit this independence and freedom through non-disclosure agreements and non-compete clauses. In many ways, these practices by companies to force loyalty of their employees is unethical.
Employees should be allowed freedom to move from company to company in order to stay engaged and knowledgeable. Frankly, this benefits all parties and is more reflective of the modern world.
