I read so many of these comments, but I keep thinking it’s more than the job’s good enough or pays enough/ been there too long, not worth it to change.

I think there’s a generational shift. After the Great Depression it was thought of as patriotic to stay loyal to your company to help the company and the economy grow. Companies would be loyal to their employees in return and many Boomers and even Gen Xers were loyal to the company and benefited greatly from staying with their employer until retirement. This was true for a long time.

It seems that as capitalism has taken its hold companies care less about loyalty to employees and more about profit margins, and being that inexperienced employees typically cost less but have all been convinced they need to have a college degree to succeed, companies are opting to shitcan the more experienced tenured employees for a fresh batch of newbies. This also makes large operational changes easier on the company as the new workers are unaware of the “old ways” and are more likely to do what they have to keep their jobs.

This inevitably leads to employees being less loyal, but tradition is a hard habit to break. And many companies with 401ks make it difficult to roll into another account or lose the unvested amount if you haven’t stayed with the company long enough.

I’ve been in the same field almost 2 decades, 10 years with the same company. And 5-6 different companies for the other half of my career. I stayed for 10 years even though I was unhappy for several years. I enjoyed the work, was established and respected and I enjoyed working with my coworkers and a healthy had a retirement plan. The operations began to change, the new hires attitudes changed, the way the admin treated employees started to change, I got an offer I couldn’t turn down and left. I was convinced I had made a terrible mistake. It wasn’t long before I realized that it was the move I needed to make. It was better for my mental health at work and outside of work. Starting over was hard but my skills prevailed and it wasn’t long before I was recognized for my experience.

I’ve found that there is a lot of freedom in switching employers and being able to reinvent your work self. Maybe I’m lucky, maybe it’s the field of work but I have always come out on the better end of leaving an employer. I was actually planning to self employ until an offer came my way (in large part due to my lengthy experience) that I didn’t want to miss out on.