Hire Job Hoppers? Sure, if You Believe You Can Stop the Hopping

My post this week on The Pongo Blog tackled a question that perplexes many a hiring manager today: Would you hire a job hopper? The topic, when it was addressed last month on the BNET blog, garnered more than 100 responses, which is danged good for a business blog (Frankly, I'm more than a bit jealous, but hardly anyone in the blogosphere knows me through this blog).

My most recent Internet reading finds that the younger workers, aka Generation Y, is more prone to job hopping (roughly defined as working an average of one job a year), largely because they're not being challenged enough or they don't want to work for a company that expects complete and undying fealty to the corporate mission - even it means working 60-70 hours a week, and leisure and family time be damned. (Uh, no, I don't think so!)

The problem, as I see it, is not with the workers, but with the employers. Some are only now beginning to see the potential payback in investing in worker development and training as a means to prolong tenure and hang onto their most promising talent. I'm sure it's tough for many of these companies to do since they've been doing it the "Work comes first" and "Just do it no matter how long it takes" philosophies for so long. But if companies believe you can train and develop workers who would otherwise job hop, and value their off-work hours as much as they do, then you shouldn't have a problem. Right?

It's a changing world, and while the Baby Boomers have made their mark with long hours and hard work in the workplace, Generation Y is taking the workplace in another direction. And as its numbers grow, the attitudes in the workplace, as well as business practices, are bound to change.

What about you? Are things changing where you are? How does your company feel about job hoppers? I welcome your thoughts and observations.

Signs of the times: The fading newspaper

I still get a newspaper delivered each day in a bright green Boston Globe tube at the end of my driveway. The day just doesn't seem right without a look at the sports section, the front page, the editorial page, and even a couple of other sections.

But newspaper circulation is in decline everywhere in the U.S. with the rise of the Internet as a news medium and as a better way for advertisers to deliver returns on their investments. A recent blog post on BNET paints an even darker picture for the newspaper industry. I alluded to this last month after the Los Angeles Times fired its editor after he refused to follow management orders and cut $4 million from the newsroom budget.

The writer of the BNET post, David Weir, also mentions how industry veterans are anxious about what they should do with their skills. To me, it's quite simple: Go web, or take your writing and editing skills into another arena. Unless you embrace the web as the primary news medium of the future, take an inventory of your skills and start working on your resume.

And if you fear making that move over to the electronic side, take it from me: It's worth the switch!

I welcome any feedback or requests for career advice from any journalists, no matter where you are in your career.