Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Switching for a reason ?

Considering we spend such a lot of time at our workplace, we do end up making friends there. A group of such friends, the common link being that we had all worked together in the same organization at some point and time met at my place for lunch a few weeks back

Post our discussion on the projects we were working on at present, the invariable "R" discussion about how the recession had not affected most other industries, but not healthcare to a large extent, the topic drove to a common ex-colleague

This colleague of ours had changed close to 10 companies in a 9 year work experience set up, so much so that we all joked that he could frame his appointment letters and display them.

This was not a solitary case. A lot of my colleagues whom I interact with talk of giving interviews or leaving in less than a year’s time

This made me wonder, was the Gallup Study which talks of 90 % of individuals leaving a job because of a bad boss, all that true. Are we today less tolerant compared to our parents? Do we feel that switching jobs is the only way towards a fatter pay packet?

We generally take about six months to tune ourselves to a new organizational set –up, another two months to actually take charge and start contributing, the peak of your learning and contribution phase after a period of one year. The actual responsibility phase is when you have been in the organization for at least 2 to 3 years.

Do we learn anything in one year to make the jump so soon? Are we learning anything in the long run, by frequent job switches?

I personally feel one needs to work towards a larger goal not from an organizational interest, but our interest. A rolling stone, it is said gathers no moss. All individuals who are the who is who in the corporate world are people who have been in the same organization for a considerable period and have risen the ranks the hard way. Is it not time we learnt something from them ?

1 comment:

SG said...

Nice write up. Yes, we can learn from them. However, companies now are not the same like companies a few decades ago. In today’s corporate world, the only thing that matters is the quarterly financial results. Staffing adjustments take place depending on these results. Therefore, in my opinion, even if someone wants to he/she cannot work for the same organization for a considerable time.

Let me take the old undivided AT&T for example. Majority of the people joined in their teens and early 20s and retired at 65 with a nice pension. Direct recruitment was only for non-management positions and first line management positions. People advanced from these position even to the rank of CEO. The company took care of its employees, irrespective of the quarterly financial results. We cannot find companies like that any more.