tombstoneA few decades ago there was an implicit contract between employees and the organizations they worked for. As an employee, you would be loyal and committed to the organization you worked for – giving it your labor and your attention. In exchange that organization would take care of you for life. In fact, working at an organization for 20, 30, or over 40 years was really not that uncommon. Then, once you would leave that organization you would get a pension. Some of these long-term employees still exist but they are a rare dying breed on the verge or retirement (or have reached a point where they too now need to switch jobs). Contrast that with people like my 22 year brother who doesn’t even know what a pension is, and neither to most other people his age.

Long term or life-time employment as we know it today is completely, utterly, and unequivocally, 120% dead, and it ain’t coming back…ever.

The latest numbers from the bureau of labor statistics show that the average tenure was 4.6 years based on data released in January 2012. For workers over 65 the average tenure was 10.3 years and for workers between 25-34 the average tenure was 3.2 years. If you combine this data with the fact that large organizations are more rapidly getting replaced by other incumbents, then you have a bit of an “interesting” situation.

But why is this happening? There are a few reasons.

Globalization

Our access to opportunities is no longer limited to our physical location like it was decades ago. Today, you can be based in Beijing yet still have the opportunity to work for the hottest start-up in the Bay Area (which for many eventually means re-location). More opportunities and access to organizations all over the world means more choice, more freedom, and less commitment to one organization.

Big company doesn’t mean job security

I wrote about this a few weeks ago, but with the massive sweeping layoffs that many larger organizations go through, the incentive to work there shrinks dramatically. This means that the idea of seeing companies as “stepping stones” to better opportunities is pretty much the norm. The new workforce is growing up seeing these things happening first hand so they are very aware of this and preparing themselves accordingly.

Accelerating rate of change

Not only is the world of work changing but the rate at which it is changing is accelerating . This creates more market turbulence and instability. This heavily ties into the theme above about large organizations and job security. However, market turbulence affects all organizations and all industries. In more dynamic and turbulent conditions there is no such thing as long term stability. People get tossed around from place to place, companies go under, new companies emerge, and this cycle happens increasingly more often.

New loyalties

Instead of being loyal to a particular company, many are now loyal to specific people they work with . When these people leave they usually bring their “friends” with them.

Changing expectations

Today the levels of employee disengagement appear to be staggeringly high. This means that new employees start out working for an organization with a very positive outlook. However, once they start to feel like they are not appreciated, not enjoying their jobs, etc. They start to look elsewhere. Consider the many opportunities that are now present through crowd-funding sites like Indiegogo, disrupting businesses like Uber or Lyft, the ease of starting your own business, or even becoming a full-time freelancer on sites like oDesk or Elance. The mind-set of lifetime or long-term employment doesn’t even exist for many employees today. They simply expect to be at an organization for a few years and then move onto the next thing.

So, now that we know that long-term employment is dead, what should organizations be doing to adapt? This is a topic that I’m going to explore in my next post. In the meantime I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, and feedback around this. Are you noticing this trend at your organization and if so, what are you doing about it?

 

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