My Renaissance

Erik Ishimatsu

After High School, I went to a semester of college and then left the
country to serve a two-year voluntary mission for The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Shortly after returning home, I enrolled in
college again and started this class. According to the Merriam-Webster
Dictionary, a renaissance is, a period of new growth or activity, which
is exactly what I experienced in this class. As I read and studied the
works of philosophers and writers throughout the history of the world,
some of these writings and ideas were new to me and some were simply
a review. Whether a review or not, these passages of text created that
new growth and got me excited to study further into the world of
business.
I found this course very interesting in the fact that I studied about
how people were treated at work throughout history and the impact that
differing conditions had on them. Today, there are many laws that
prevent many of the problems that workers faced in the past. There are,
however, other challenges involved with working in the 21st Century that
havent occurred before and this course helped me to think about how
these new challenges will be dealt with.
One point that has found my interest is the increasing amount of
people who switch careers and jobs on a regular basis throughout their
lives. Today, workers are no longer lifelong loyal employees to a single
company; although they do still exist, it is not the norm to stay with one
company or one career for ones entire working life. In an article written
on Forbes.com it says, The average worker today stays at each of his or
her jobs for 4.4 yearsbut the expected tenure of the workforces
youngest employees is about half that that means they would have 1520 jobs over the course of their working lives! This is a new twist to
the workplace in our time.

So why are young workers changing jobs so often? Many of these

young workers have seen the effects that the job recession took on their
parents, many of them being laid off or fired. Seeing the employment
struggles that their parents went through was hard for them and has
created a sense of insecurity in the workplace. To combat this feeling of
insecurity, young workers have been preparing themselves for the
inevitability of losing their jobs by becoming flexible to change jobs
whenever. Not only are they prepared to, but they are changing jobs
constantly trying to increase pay, opportunity, or work environment.
Each of them are constantly seeking to find happiness and security in
their jobs.
Although the attitude has changed toward job hopping in recent
years, there is still a fine line between hopping too much and not
enough. When employees hop too much too fast, they look like they are
not stable and not loyal to the companies. This can have a negative
impact on being hired at a new company. When employees do switch
jobs for advancement at what is considered a regular rate, this job
hopping can be considered a good thing to future employers. At each
job, they gain experience, knowledge, and skills that they can bring in,
to help at their new workplace. I believe that the idea today is that
employees are being continuously trained at each job, which overall
boosts all companies ability to find, hire, and have educated and skilled
employees working for them. I believe that it is an economical plus
when all companies can work inadvertently together to create a powerful
and progressing workforce.
The world has become increasingly difficult for both employees
and employers. Both groups of people need to be cautious when it comes
to job hopping and hiring. Employers can spend many hours and much
money training new employees just to see them quit and go to another
job. So what can employers do to protect themselves? According to
Jeanne Meister at Forbes.com employers can do three things to protect
themselves from a massive turn-over in employees. These three things
are to offer flexibility in the workplace, to listen to their employees, and

to have and promote high values. I believe that these points are very
important in keeping employees on for longer.
As a young college student, who is also working and seeking
fulfillment in the workplace, I place a high value on each of these points.
One thing that is interesting to me is that none of these points have
anything to do with money. As Jeanne puts it, 58 percent of
respondents said they would take a 15% pay cut in order to work for an
organization with values like my own. This statistic shows that there
is much more than money involved in keeping a stable workforce. I met
with my aunt this week to ask her about her current job and she told me
that she wasnt making as much money as her previous job, but that the
environment and her coworkers were so much better that she didnt care
about the pay decrease, it was worth it to her to enjoy her work once
again.
At the heart of each human being is the desire to feel accomplished
and accepted. This concept was very clearly written by Studs Terkel in
his text, Mike LeFevre, Steel Worker, which gives an account of an
interview of a steel worker who feels like his work is meaningless
because he doesnt see the end product, only his small job in the long
line of jobs. I believe that what is described in this chapter is one of the
most important things to employees. This one concept will create the
desire for employees to stay at a company longer despite lower pay. To
do this, employers need to foster an atmosphere of accomplishment and
unity. This task is not easy to do, but would be well worth it in the long
run.
I believe that job hopping is now an integrated part of our society
and that when embraced it can have a very positive impact on the lives
of both employees and employers. Continuous training at each job helps
employees progress in knowledge and skills that will benefit each of the
companies that they work for. Employers can continually make their
work environment a pleasant one in order to keep people on longer.

Developing a solid and wide skill set by hopping jobs is one way that I
plan on making myself a wanted and appreciated employee.

Works Cited
Meister, Jeanne. "Job Hopping Is the 'New Normal' for Millennials: Three Ways to Prevent a Human
Resource Nightmare." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2015.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2015.
Smith, Jacquelyn. "The Pros and Cons of Job Hopping." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 05 Aug.
2015. Magazine, n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2015.
Engh, Edward G. Critical Thinking Readings from the Literature of Business and Society. Second ed.
Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. Print.