Current Events > Companies are all scratching their heads on millennial employee retention.

(+) Yeah! (+)

So, how can they retain millennial employees?

Surely we have some millennials here. Let's hear it: why did you REALLY leave your previous job(s)?

For me, it was, first to most recent:

1. Because I was salaried and my boss demanded I work more. Also, I didn't know I could use that to negotiate my salary.

2. Because it was a small company, with small pay and small benefits.

3. Because it was the second-most mind-numbingly boring thing I've ever had to do.

4. Because it was the actual most mind-numbingly boring thing I've ever had to do.

I got laid off due to "lack of work," when in reality I kept refusing to drive trucks that were not road legal and kept forcing the company to fix the trucks they wanted me to drive.

Job before that I hurt my back bad enough that I could not continue that job and almost went bankrupt trying to hold off for them to be legally required to make accommodations, but the insurance company was making my life so much more difficult I had to give up and just look for different work in the same industry. (This was the shit that radicalized me)

Money

Because moving to a new job is the best way to get a raise, and a company isnt loyal to me so theres no reason to be loyal to it

Wasn't paid enough.

my previous job paid me 40% of what I make now for the same, if not more, work

before that I had what was explicitly a summer job that despite telling them during the interview process "I'm here for the summer and was told I could take educational leave", they thought it was a full time career position (in addition to generally poor treatment). So I left.

Give them raises consistent with not just cost of living increases but with the market.

It's literally not a millennial issue, it's a market issue.

I left my last job which was in retail for a better job in retail. I worked at Wal-Mart for 7 years. I was a cashier at the front and over time the staffing got so bad every shift was like a skeleton crew, and I hated having to sit there with a line of 5+ people all day because of it. I also hated having to apologize I'm one of two lanes open because when you get down to it, the trillion dollar company obviously could staff their stores better, but they know the average customer will still shop there still or just migrate to buying their shit from the companies website.

I moved to a different sector in retail only found in a handful of states in the US. I now work at a state owned liquor store chain in one of the states that is still control. For me this is night and day. Staffing is much better, no sales goals to push, no credit card apps to push, etc. It's retail but without a lot of the corporate bullshit because it isn't corporate. I am an employee of my states government and also in a union.

I like this job so much more to the point I am now the GM of a store, when before I never would have wanted to be a GM or even just a manager.

For me I just got tired of putting up with being given a bogus set of tools from a billion dollar company almost every shift. Took a minute to get out as I wasn't going to take a pay cut to do so, but it did happen.

wackyteen posted...

Give them raises consistent with not just cost of living increases but with the market.

It's literally not a millennial issue, it's a market issue.

If you ask me, the real problem is the older generations are whipped.

They're treating millennials exactly like Boomers and X'ers who are evidently ok with never getting promoted and not matching cost of living increases and yet going "what's wrong with these kids?"

RetuenOfDevsman posted...

If you ask me, the real problem is the older generations are whipped.

They're treating millennials exactly like Boomers and X'ers who are evidently ok with never getting promoted and not matching cost of living increases and yet going "what's wrong with these kids?"

Well used to, staying at one position would keep you paid well enough to afford a home, spouse, kids, vacations, etc

Nowadays, it just isn't feasible.

TheGoldenEel posted...

Because moving to a new job is the best way to get a raise, and a company isnt loyal to me so theres no reason to be loyal to it

Yeah, it's common career advice these days that if you want to get paid what you're worth then you're going to have to change employers at some point, probably several times. Private employers largely don't give cost of living adjustments or offer pensions anymore, so there's little reason for workers to stay with one company for most of their careers like they used to.

Speaking as a Millennial myself, I would quit my job if I felt the amount of pay I'm given is not proportional to the amount of workload the corporation is giving me. Basically when I feel like I'm giving it my all with results but the company does not recognize it and instead just dumps more work for you to do without the right compensation for it. This happened at my first job at a CPA firm working at one of the Big 4 where I felt I was being gaslighted for being lazy when not only I was the top performing accountant in terms of accuracy and deadlines. After 3 years of working with the firm, the only time I got a raise was when I got my CPA license which was only a $5k bump to my salary. Every other time I requested for a raise or a chance for a promotion, they would just pull up my previous years working for them and asking why I was working "less overtime hours" or how a person working under me was underperforming and blame me for it. I didn't even know it was a bad thing until I applied somewhere else with much better pay and a better work/life schedule that they finally offered me a promotion. I'm currently working at a new CPA firm that actually respects me for my hard work, to the point where my department has the highest retention rate out of the other departments because I treat my staff with respect. Fuck my old work place.

"Fuck you, pay me."

Companies: How about a pizza par-

"FUCK you. PAY me."

Umbreon posted...

"Fuck you, pay me."

Companies: How about a pizza par-

"FUCK you. PAY me."

Companies: "We can't do that but we can add an 'RT' between the 'A' and 'Y'"

You put a 1 and two 0's in front of that, and you got a deal.

I dunno... pay them well and stop the constant surveillance metrics?

Wow... took me five seconds, why aren't I a CEO making 17 million a year?

I found out I could make something like 30% more than I was making at my previous job--and with good benefits/retirement--by switching to the government sector. So I did.

Pay more and give better benefits and you will retain some employees. Otherwise, be prepared for Millenials and Zoomers to use you to climb the salary ladder.

I've only worked at two companies over my career. I left the first one because it seemed like my job would be going away. In retrospect, I should have left much sooner, as pay and benefits were bad.
I can't imagine leaving this place I'm at now.

Give appropriate raises? People job hop because they get rewarded for it.

Wasn't treated like a human being

Tag

My previous job had the VP of construction pressuring us lab techs to fabricate results in order to make the clients happy. I complained to my supervisor and HR about it and wound up getting laid off because the VP decided the lab didn't need three lab techs anymore.

The only way to survive in that company is to just nod and agree even if you're being told something catastrophically wrong. It's why majority of the staff are old gen Xers and Boomers and they can't retain any of the younger generations longer than a couple of months.

Squall28 posted...

Give appropriate raises? People job hop because they get rewarded for it.

The company is trying to maximize their profit but they somehow expect you to not be doing the same and to really just be working for personal fulfillment or because you love being a team player or whatever.

wackyteen posted...

Companies: "We can't do that but we can add an 'RT' between the 'A' and 'Y'"

lol, Clever.

I quit my last job because it caused me an emotional break. My day-to-day work was a dumpster fire of bad c-suite choices and neglect. That alone wouldn't have pushed me over the edge for a long while, but a couple lost their kids in custody court due to the systemic issues of said dumpster fire. I couldn't handle being a part of that and needing to lie about it, so I quit instead.

Japanties posted...

I quit my last job because it caused me an emotional break. My day-to-day work was a dumpster fire of bad c-suite choices and neglect. That alone wouldn't have pushed me over the edge for a long while, but a couple lost their kids in custody court due to the systemic issues of said dumpster fire. I couldn't handle being a part of that and needing to lie about it, so I quit instead.

Ya, outside issues that come into work can be frustrating.
Particularly when you don't think 'That Way' but are forced into it by being exposed to it.
Even worse if you have some PTSD from being exposed to that sort of thing, but it isn't the way you think or act.