What Happened to Permanent Employment?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Nov. 9, 2017, 5:29 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
In the past, even as recently as twenty years ago, when a person started a job, they could expect to remain at that job until they retired, or at least be there for a decade or two, and there was very little risk of the losing that job unless they committed a heinous violation, and, even then, it would not be especially difficult for them to find another job, so losing one's job was not a severe problem.
However, in recent years, the job market has entirely changed; now, it is very difficult to find a job, so people will do everything they can to find one, and, once they have found it, they will make an effort to remain with it for as long as possible, because there is no guarantee that they could easily find another job if they lost that one. Also, permanent or long-term employment has greatly declined in recent years, with very few jobs being permanent; now, most jobs are short-term contracts that provide few benefits for employees, such as health insurance, vacation, and, most importantly, retirement funds.
I myself have felt firsthand the horrible agony that is the current job market, because I have been pursuing a career in technical support since 2010, and still have not yet found a permanent position; all of my technical support jobs have been for short-term projects, despite the fact that major companies need to have permanent technical support staff for their employees.
Therefore, I often find myself wondering: what happened to permanent employment? Why is it now so difficult to find jobs, and why do they not last as long? What has changed in the past several decades? What does everyone else say about this?
I imagine that a major reason for this trend is that the world's population has grown so great that there are now too many people competing for the same jobs, so the resources are limited, but that problem will not likely be solved at any time in the enar future, so a new solution is needed.
Maybe not for your specific case, but one note is that in lots of industries people are kind of encouraged to jump around a lot, or applicants don't actually prefer to think about their tenure at a company being any longer than a couple of years.
So when you think about products like pension which many companies used to offer, its not actually a very appealing allure anymore than other things (which is kind of a side-subject).
November 9, 2017 10:12 p.m.
I'm also in IT (I write code).
One of the reasons you find that in IT is because the easiest way to get a promotion or raise is to jump ship. Skilled developers can work somewhere for a year, the go somewhere else and get a 20% raise.
The only people who stay with a company for years are founders, stock holders, or the lazy and unambitious.
November 9, 2017 10:23 p.m.
Unambatious is not necessarily a bad thing. I have kids so my goal isn't necessarily to make the most money, it's to make enough money to support my kids. If I found a job that I liked that allowed me to do that I likely would stay there
November 9, 2017 10:32 p.m.
Hyperalgialysis says... #6
It is probably just the way everything has headed. To be fair from the employers point of view, if you were to stay with them for 25 years what would expect them to do for you? I personally would want yearly increases if not more frequent, a slew of benefits, and some company supported retirement plan. If they offer all of that to you, and a vast majority of the people they are going to hire will leave in 1-3 years what does the company get? In years past, people were more reliable and much harder workers as a whole. I hate to say it, but we have our generation and the previous one to thank. I am a phlebotomist, and work in a hospital with a union. It is amazing to me how often I hear "I come to work everyday, I do my job I deserve a raise". Before I drew blood I was a line cook and had quite a few raises that I earned by working hard and going above their expectations to get the raises. A lot of people just aren't driven like that any more. Everyone has a sense of entitlement and the job market reflects this. Too often are people willing to call off during the probationary period, extend their breaks and want other special treatment just because. Holidays in my hospital are seniority based time off. The hospital does cut as much staff ad possible to let us spend time with our families. After 5 years or so I was finally out of the holiday rotation because I finally had seniority over enough people to be off. A lot of younger people have quit simply because they wouldnt be off for thanksgiving or christmas. The hospital also offers everything you want and more, but the packages they give us keep getting a little worse each year. The big issue is the fact that many people aren't going to stay for more than a year, so why offer them long term benefits? They instead now offer sign on bonuses and other things like that to get positions filled. I really dislike this direction also as I am in a similar situation, wife and kids and wanting to know I can take care of them for the years to come.
November 11, 2017 8:10 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
Without a permanent job, I will never be able to have my own place of residence, which is what I will eventually need when my parents are no longer alive. What will I do if they die and I have not yet found a permanent job and my own house?
November 11, 2017 12:30 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #8
It's worth mentioning, too, that there seems to be a growing sentiment, especially among millennials and Gen Z, that one's work has to be related to their life's calling. Expectations of the post-graduation (either high school or college) working life are often unrealistic or misinformed. As a result, many young people seem to feel less fulfilled by their work and leave their positions more frequently.
For those graduating with a degree in a particular field, work can be scarce. Large companies in particular expect employees to have experience in the field, but most new graduates have few opportunities to get that experience; they have to have taken an internship during school or find entry level or unpaid positions that will allow them to work without that experience. It can take several years to finally break into the field of their choice.
November 12, 2017 1:29 a.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #9
Gov't is partially to blame. Higher unemployment taxes for employers along with additional hoops to jump through and higher costs in obtaining decent health benefits make contracting the work out more appealing.
As far as the world's population growing so much that there aren't jobs, that's just blatantly false. What has changed is that it's generally harder in many developed countries to start your own business now, which limits new potential. The USA has fallen a couple of pegs over the last decade on the world scale of "countries that are friendly to new businesses". There's no set limit on how many jobs are available in relation to the world's population.
MWorl91 says... #2
A good bit of the answer is political in nature. Taxes, laws, etc have changed the way businesses hire, pay, and evaluate their employees. Whether you blame republicans, democrats, or politicians in general, that's where the problems lie.
November 9, 2017 10:06 p.m.