By Younas Chaudhary
In the current environment of job hopping, as a business owner, I am fortunate to have coworkers who have stayed with me for a long time, some around four decades. Certain coworkers joined me after having worked in big corporations. I have been blessed with their depth of knowledge, experience, and their loyalty to my company.
People often debate the pros and cons of working at one place for a long time. From what I have seen, longevity matters. As much as I’ve been blessed to keep long term coworkers in my team, the stability of my business has helped them in building long-lasting relationships and solid careers.
Employees decide to leave a company for a multitude of reasons ranging from having a bad boss, pay issues, or a workplace culture they don’t like. In some workplaces, you are just a number, another cog in the wheel of a company beholden to shareholder value.
People stay long term if they like the culture, learn, get experience, and have opportunities for growth. In my business, I encourage employees to work across departments and multitask so that they become well-versed in different aspects of the business. In our company, engineers don’t remain engineers, instead they understand marketing, accounting, profit and loss, field operations, site visits, what’s happening in the oilfields, and how to save money running your own home. By staying at one company for a long time, the breadth of experience they receive is unmatched compared to places where employees are stuck to one position or a job with a narrow focus.
There is no doubt that seeking greener pastures can give you a hike in short term wages and sometimes help prevent career stagnation. However, staying at one place in the long run has its cumulative benefits not just in money earned but in other perks that come with it. This includes flexible schedules, company vehicles, insurance, time off, wide variety of experience, and other benefits that you probably won’t receive in a large corporation where your take home pay might be slightly better.
By consistently working at one place for a long time, you learn your craft much better, you get promoted faster, and you become thorough in different aspects of the company’s business. You gain expertise and mastery over your trade and reach a stage where you can teach this knowledge to new employees. This teaching, learning, cross training, and mentoring newcomers are things that long-term employees usually enjoy.
Despite the lure of more money and other tangible benefits, job hopping is stressful. It’s always prudent to assess the benefits versus the risks before you decide to jump. There is no job that’s going to be 100 percent satisfying and there will be no employers who will align fully with your expectations regarding money, culture, or other benefits. Stay Blessed!
Disclaimer
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. Further, I make no warranty regarding the accuracy or effectiveness of my recommendations, and readers are advised to consult other advisors as well as their own judgments in making business decisions.
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