Let’s ponder a scenario where three people enter the same job. One is aged 18, one is 33, and the other is 68. We’ll say it’s a nondescript retail job.
With the age gap as is, I believe it’s safe to assume the length of time each employee keeps stays at their job is not unrelated to their ages.
Why does an 18 year old need a job?
Why does a 33 year old need a job?
Why does a 68 year old need a job?

Using the CDC’s data I’m calling human life expectancy 80 years.
Most States in the U.S. will allow minors to hold a job at age 16. Nevada and North Dakota allow people to work at 14.

I’m going to say the 18 year old is not going to stay at the nondescript retail job for 62 years. There’s no way the 68 year old is going to last a lifetime at the retail job, and the 33 year old likely won’t work there the rest of their life either.

So why are they working there?

One answer could be the 18 year old has been separated from their parents and needs to support themselves financially. Or maybe their parents are forcing them to take the job to teach them what the workforce is all about. The job holds two different values within each reason. If the fire is under their feet with no safety net, their work ethic and plan will not be the same as someone who took a job because they were told to.

Same principle goes for the 33 year old. Here’s a person who could have worked their way to management from the ground up at 18. Someone who takes pride in the work they’ve put in to reach their position. Someone attached to the position because it means more to them having toughed it out with the company. On the other hand, the 33 year old could have been in a completely different line of work, and due to an accident was unfit to continue working and the bills still had to get paid. What if they were arrested and needed to take a job to offset the legal fees and court costs? The job now becomes viewed as this temporary safety net. A mental portrait of a life raft, the buffer between the free world and an imprisoned one. Or the job as viewed as, “the only thing I can do anymore.”

The only scenario I’m imagining the 68 year old working with these people is they’re retired and need something to do besides sit around the house. Which, in my humble opinion, fucks up the economy. There are people who need that job more than they do. There’s a reason I don’t make the rules.

All three people have different intentions with this job, meaning they have different approaches to their work style. The 68 year old is likely here for the social interaction, the job is something they enjoy. Whereas the 18 year old experiences having a job for the first time in their life. There’s likely a fear, an air of anxiety in the 18 year old to prove himself worthy and to not mess things up.
If the 33 year old is in legal trouble, it’s a guarantee they will be at this job until that commitment is fulfilled. If they earned their position over the last fifteen years, they may be inclined to stay longer. But maybe not.

Why do people leave jobs?

I ask this question at every job interview. “What happened to the last guy in this position?”
If they were promoted to a higher position, they might be the one training the new hire, and it means there’s room for growth in the company.
Sometimes jobs are seasonal, temporary or contract. As a freelancer, this is something I’ve grown accustomed to. Filing 1099s and taking a hit on my taxes year after year. I’m quite sick of it.

I think at the very bottom of the page, we can find most people who are not terminated from their job, leave their job for a higher paying position. Money talks. If bartending at Studio 54 in NYC back in the late 1970s made you 5k a week, and you had a degree to teach history, it makes perfect sense to say, “fuck them kids” and go make more money.

Unless….

Is taking a pay cut for a more respectable position something people do? I’d have to say yes.
If supporting the alcohol machine goes against your values (however you measure them) then you’d turn down Studio 54 and stick to your morals. I will revisit this post in the future, and expand on the role of morality in the workplace. It stands out to me because of how many of us in the service industry are daily asked to compromise our morals.

Maybe morality forms a filter around the jobs we’re willing to accept. Intention for accepting a job can be based on criteria best suited for the individual.

The majority of jobs I’ve applied for were out of desperation. I had this shortsighted mindset believing the world would end if I were late on a bill. I’ve always seen myself as a creative on a path towards creative work. Sometimes the pressures of society seep in and I try and do something more “normal” and it rarely works out. I’ve used my youth to my advantage. Some of the jobs I’ve worked: at the airport, the sixteen seater party bike, or the gym, were supposed to be fun experiences I wanted under my belt. I’ve taken on a lot of projects just for the experience but I can’t do that anymore. My actions have all led me here.

I fantasize about a stable job. One that pays my bills and offers health insurance. I try and convince myself I’m one conversation away from finding where I fit. I know what I don’t want to do anymore. I’m done with the restaurant industry, I can’t work around or with alcohol. I’m not going to be a mechanic. I’m not likely going into the military. The probability of getting into law or healthcare is low. I will not be a truck driver, a delivery driver, or any kind of driver for that matter.

People are fluid. They change over time. My intentions at 18 were vastly different than they are at 28. If I make it to 68, I hope to have found what I’m looking for by then.

-Morgan