Is it fair to measure how long you should stay at a job by public opinion? Or is the answer to this question a reflection of values?
“Job hopping” might communicate a lack of loyalty. I’m in a position where my character cannot be measured by surface-level professions, but through a much deeper lens.

Work is supposed to be work, not fun. The story of a man working a job they hate for decades is a common one. But at what cost? The time set aside to live your life becomes an act of rebellion to your chosen corporate overlord. No skill level is exempt from being forced to choose between life and work.
Too many times I’ve said, “If the company was legally allowed to leave a bed in the building for the workers to sleep on, they would and work their employees harder.”
As an employee, it feels you’re expected to show up even on the day you die. Perhaps even a day after, if it doesn’t put you into overtime.
The service industry is notorious for overworking a skeleton crew with very little incentive beyond the base pay.

Are people like me at fault?

Are people like me why low-skilled labor jobs have to incorporate more rigorous policies to weed out the people who naturally wouldn’t last? For example, factories who contract people for a 90 day probation period through a staffing agency to judge performance. It makes sense why businesses wouldn’t want to spend money hiring someone just for the company to lose on their investment in a short window of time.

I don’t think I’m fully at fault for an apparently systemic trend. I’ve been thrown into this game of cat-and-mouse where the cat is management and the mice are the mindless drones of personified company policy.
I am fully at fault for my streaks of insubordination.

“Find a job you enjoy doing and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” -Mark Twain.

Take time to consider the nature of the work. I have been pursuing a music career for over a decade now. Although I have taught at different schools, and performed at different venues, I do the same actions. The trade doesn’t change. The trade evolves and expands into different territories. I’ve accepted creative work as a lifelong career. I embrace it in its entirety. The good and the bad parts. This goes for all artistic ventures. Writing, visual work, regardless of income, I will live and die an artist. Once the cart starts moving, it will not stop. Whether I like it or not, I’m on the ride.

But nobody hired me to be an artist. It’s a calling with a duty to heed.
My music career is a form of self-employment in where I have to find the right puzzle to fit the piece in.

My professional career on the other hand…