It absolutely was NOT yet the corporations and their hiring managers STILL acted like an employee OWED YOU SOMETHING for employing them, verses the reality of it being a “mutually beneficial arrangement.”

And with an older workforce and older adults who live through the 1940s-70s where you were more likely to have a pension, this was still the prevailing social advice through at least 2008 I’d estimate. Especially from older adults.

The “job hopper stigma” was much worse in 1991 compared to today.

My personal favorite “THIS IS WHY LARGE CORPORATIONS FUCKING SUCK” story is about a friend who worked at a large publicly traded company from when he was 25-50.

When they outsource manufacturing to Mexico, he moved 2,000 miles away from his aging parents for them to manage a different site and they “down staffed” him 3 years later.

This friend used to give his younger fiancée shit for “job hopping” which was one thing that led to their demise.

It’s not fun to be a 50yo hs grad seeking employment. Age discrimination is real. And his “one job resume” looked ok to some, but others were turned off by the fact he was unemployed for 3 years.

And while I’m at it, WTF is wrong with that?!

He could afford it, had savings, no kids, and because he’s loyal to a fault, he didn’t wanna take a job “and then quit in like a year or 2 for a better one.”

Someone finally hired him but fuck. To me he just illustrates how corporations reward “loyalty.”

And his 85yo mom- who encouraged this behavior in him in his 20s, seems to at least learned from her mistake. When they fired him she said, “I knew they would do that every, I just thought it would be closer to retirement so they wouldn’t have to pay his pension.”