A new report came out last week that quoted “one in three Generations Z and millennial workers are looking for new job, according to a survey of 630 full-time employees at small to midsize businesses by Paychecks Incorporated. Older generations including baby boomers and Gen Xer’s are more content with their current employment. Only 11% of boomers and 27% of Generation Z are actively seeking a new job, compared with 35% of millennials and 44% of Generation Z.”
Ever since I’ve been in this business, I have seen these reports. When I was younger, I believed them. It’s not that I don’t believe them anymore, it is just that I have a much better perspective than I did years ago. Here is the reality. If you ask most people if they’d like to find a new job, lots of them will tell you “of course.” And you’re especially apt to do that when you’re young and just a bit ignorant. But there is a real big difference between saying that you would “like to find a new job” and actually going to the trouble and effort to actively look for a job.
How do I know this? Because I meet all kinds of people all the time who tell me they want to find a new job, but when they have to make an investment of time and effort and go through the emotional strain of having to get interviews, take the time to interview, get rejected and then have to do it all over again, maybe over a two or three or four months period of time, it’s a different story. Objectively and when it doesn’t cost any time, trouble or effort, most people will say, “Yeah, sure… I’ll change jobs!” But doing it is a totally different matter.
Maybe the younger generation just doesn’t know how hard it really is to just “change jobs.” Maybe the other generations know that most jobs might just be what you make of them. Maybe they also know how hard it is to really change jobs even if you think you might want to. The actual doing of it, since maybe they’ve done it before, runs through their head and they think better of the idea.
Changing jobs is really hard to do. It’s a first-class pain. So, when you read surveys like this, take them with a grain of salt. People’s intentions and their actions might be different.
