The Case Against Job Hopping

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

It seems that people can always find a "reason" for job hopping -- some more legitimate than others -- so why not just hop away? What's the downside? I'm only looking out for number one, and no one ELSE is going to do that.

Most employers -- and ALL the ones I've worked for -- genuinely want to treat their employees well. Reading some of the posts on AN, you'd think that all employers were out to run employees into the ground with back breaking labor for inadequate compensation and decreasing benefits. Yes, benefits are taking a hit -- as the entire economy did. Employers have to do more with less, and they're passing that on to the employees. It would be nice if the hospital would just take the hit in the profit margin -- or maybe out of the CEO's bonuses -- but business doesn't really work that way. We're all going to feel the pinch. Jumping to a new job because your employer, feeling the pinch, is passing it along to employees just ensures that you're going to wind up in a new place with no seniority. When that new place starts making cuts, you'll be the first to feel them.

Seniority really does protect you from some of the pain when employers feel the squeeze and start squeezing on down the line. They may cut sick leave or vacation days, but if you've already got some of each banked, you're in a better position than someone who just came on board and has neither. You may not get a pay raise, but at least you have a job. With benefits. When one of my employers cut out the pension plan, those of us who were already vested were grandfathered in. Those hired after a certain date weren't eligible. When they started cutting staff and laying folks off, the least senior went first. If you think it's hard finding a job now, just think about trying to find one after the biggest hospital system in town just laid off 10% of their nursing staff!

Job hopping denies you the chance to become competent. The nurse who has four jobs in one year doesn't have a year of experience; she has three months of experience four times. And the nurse who has four jobs in four years has one year of experience four times. If you're always going somewhere new, you have to relearn the same old things: where is the bathroom, where do I hang my coat, how do I get meds from pharmacy, what is the procedure for ordering blood, how does this doctor like his cases done???????? You never get deeper into the nitty gritty and you never build on your knowledge because you're off to start all over again somewhere else. It takes about two years to become competent as a nurse, and in your particular job. There are posters who will flame me and insist that they've been in their job a year, and they're totally competent. Most of the time, they're wrong. And they don't know what they don't know. That's the most frightening thing of all -- a nurse who insists she's competent, but doesn't know what she doesn't know.

Staying in a job makes you senior staff, and senior staff get to participate in hiring/firing decisions, precepting, chairing committees, design planning if a new unit is in the offing, equipment purchase decisions and countless other aspects of unit life. You have the chance to become a real expert in your specialty and to pass that expertise on to others. Working as a under two year employee is a whole lot different than being senior staff. But if you're always job hopping, you will never get the chance to experience that feeling of ownership in your unit.

Retirement planning is boring, and it's way off in the future anyway, so why should I care that I've never stayed anywhere long enough to be vested in a retirement plan? Someone with more financial expertise than me can explain it so much better, but if you're constantly job hopping, you throw away the chance for matching funds (FREE MONEY!) and the chancee to keep what you've saved in the company retirement fund and take it with you when/if you do eventually leave. It's possible to plan around all of this, but most of us don't know how and don't bother to learn. Then suddenly you're five years from retirement and haven't saved any money.

Job hopping gives you a bad reputation and a worse resume. At some point, you're going to start getting turned down for interviews because no one will want to hire someone they'll have to train and then replace a year later. If that hasn't happened to you yet, you still have a chance to turn things around. Choose the best job you can find and then STAY.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Exactly. Another benefit is you get to develop relationships with physicians, which can lead to increased learning opportunities from them. If you don't stay long enough for them to know your name, it's less likely they're going to take the time to explain those bizarre labs, show you how to read that XR, etc.

Senior staff usually get first consideration for away conferences, esp. ones that are major conferences in your particular specialty (e.g. ONS Congress for oncology nurses).

I'll have to think some more about this for additional examples.

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

Another, job hopping thread?! I thought we already had beaten this horse to DEATH. Apparently not.

(Pardon the interruption, carry on folks. )

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

Another, job hopping thread?! I thought we already had beaten this horse to DEATH. Apparently not.

(Pardon the interruption, carry on folks. )

It's part 2.

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

It's part 2.

Okay, got it. (walks away and grabs popcorn)

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

The other post was for job hopping? Really?

Anyway, what if they were to find a place that truly values them as a person? You yourself had said that you never worked at a place that treated you like crap. Would you honestly expect someone to stay there?

Seniority does not always guarantee safety from the squeeze. A hospital system just managed to buy out a lot of the more senior employees into leaving because of the job squeezes so they could replace them with part-time and less costly new grads. So wouldn't it make more sense to get hired into a new job that the person could potentially love now instead of waiting for the latest squeeze?

I do question your basis of competence. It takes you two years to learn where to hang your coat, how to enter orders, blood policies, where to find items, where the bathroom is, etc? That is not competence and it does not take even a year to figure those things out. Maybe trying to figure out the doctors can take time, but it should not take months to figure out some of the basics.

Retirement planning is also a weak argument. It does not take that much effort for retirement planning. Not to mention that a lot of retirement services do offer advice and a free counseling information. Matching funds? I get that benefit now right after I started contributing.

Now, the argument about senior staff is important but even the senior staff at my current unit are not involved in those type of decisions. A handful help with peer interviews but they do not help with the firing decisions. Preceptors yes and working with students. Purchasing is based off of education department, managers, and clinical leads. As for testing out equipment, all nurses get to have a say in the matter. As for the design unit, the staff did not get to put any input into the design of the combined unit when they closed one of the units. They were upset about that because they would have rather kept the other unit open. In a perfect world, the nursing administration would consult nursing staff before they do a major change. Like you know, renumbering the entire hospital. Yes, they literally renumbered all the rooms one weekend and then expected people to figure out where the stuff was. Eventually maps were made.

It's kind of a weak argument. The benefits for job hopping can outweigh these benefits. There is no guarantee that the more senior staff will be kept. I have also seen the more expensive nurses purposely made unhappy such as forcing those nurses to switch to night shift instead of 3p to 3a. Retirement planning is an effort everyone should attempt to do and I know my hospital's service provides information regarding this topic.

I do think this thread is a lot better. The tone is more professional.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

When employers are looking for candidates with for example 3-5 years of experience, they're often looking for someone who has remained with the same employer, not changed jobs 5 or more times within that period.

Ultimately, it is your decision to remain with an employer or not. However, the market is extremely competitive so frequent job changes may not prove wise.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

What are these "matching funds" of which you speak?

And why should nurses bother being loyal to employers who are not loyal to them?

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Back in the day when I was hiring I was very leary of job hoppers. Who wants to go through all the training and then have them leave in 5 months? Occasionally I took a chance and almost always it did not work out. Once in a very great while it did.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Unfortunately the benefits of seniority aren't what they once were. The good pension benefits you were lucky to get vested in are no longer available to nurses who came after you, no matter how long they remain.

My hospital had a wonderful weekend pay plan that senior nurses stayed in for years. When the plan ended, the nurses who were already in those positions learned that grandfathering in can be revoked when the plans were taken away anyway.

I agree with most of your points on the benefits of staying; I have been in my job 15 years.

There is a generational change.

Do you remember the "company man"? He joined the company right out of school, had job security, on the job training, raises, perks with seniority? I do, but most of the younger people have never experienced the working world from those days. They bring a different mind-set and loyalty and seniority are kind of foreign concepts.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Ownership in the unit? My manager keeps attempting to get me to join the unit based council and has been since I had been here for four months. Being a part of decision making for the unit doesn't take seniority, really - it apparently just takes four months of experience. There are no senior staff involved in hiring decisions on my unit, either - the people at my interview were a couple of unit managers and the critical care director. No staff nurses were involved.

Also, the senior nurses make more money... I feel like their heads are on the chopping block before mine a lot of the time because it's cheaper to hire brand new people at a low pay rate than it is to keep expensive invested employees. I am pretty sure this is really at the heart of what pushing ADNs out of the hospital is about, at least on the hospital side - there are so many BSN new grads now but often the experienced people are more likely to be ADNs or diploma RNs, and expensive ones at that.

Company retirement funds can also come with a big price tag later. A bunch of my experienced coworkers who have spent years and years with the company got letters at the end of last year about taking early retirement. The hospital is literally attempting to get them to quit or risk losing at least some of the money in their retirement accounts. I don't think taking advantage of employer matched accounts is very smart at all if taking them means your employer is going to attempt to force you to quit just so you get to keep your retirement money, but you have to lose income from working to do it. There are a lot smarter investment options out there than that. I personally do not plan on ever having a retirement account that requires my company to be responsible and kind-hearted for me to get my money. I'd rather invest in CDs and IRAs with my own personal funds, even if the money grows slower, because at least I know I'll get my money later. Nobody can take money out of my Roth IRA, five year CD, or savings account that I currently have but me, and they are all FDIC insured so I CANNOT lose them, but companies can always go back on their retirement/pension plans. Trusting your company is a mistake, IMO, because they are looking out for their own butts and their bottom line long before they are looking out for you.

I will give you the resume stuff - I do believe that job hopping hurts when it comes to resumes, but in my (very limited) experience, the rest of the benefits you say come with being senior don't really exist or come with a lot of strings attached if they do. At least that's the way they do things where I work. Maybe it is better for nurses with seniority somewhere else...

[hope3456, ASN, RN]

A "senior nurse" where I work was just recently passed up for a promotion - they hired from the outside.

I agree that seniority doesn't mean as much as it used too. And if a nurse is continually quitting jobs after 6 months or so - that does raise a red flag but I think it is understandable why nurse leave after 1-2 years.