How Long Is Too Long?

Once upon a time you could start somewhere and stay there your whole career, or hop maybe once or twice. That’s obviously not the case anymore.

Todd Defren is the owner of SHIFT Communications. He’s been at the same place since 1994. Recently, he writes, a millennial-era employee handed in her resignation with the words, “I’ve been here for almost three years, so, you know—that’s a REALLY long time.”

Really? Is there something wrong with staying longer than three years these days?

Defren thinks so: “If you can never fairly expect loyalty, you’ll stop aiming to achieve it…companies who “give up” on expecting even a modicum of employee loyalty will start to treat everyone as a short-term worker, like a seasonal farmhand or Christmastime retail clerk…This article is not intended to malign millennials.