Generational attitudes: younger workers on the go

Your age decides how happy you are to stay in a job, and how keen you are to quit and move on.

Sydneysider Jada Parisi is moving to Perth for a better lifestyle and shorter commute.

When economic conditions are good, unemployment is low and confidence is rising, those in the younger generations are the first to look for new jobs.

Recruitment agency Robert Half, which has done a study of 1000 office-based workers in Australia, has found 58 per cent are considering job jumping this year.

Those likeliest to go are generation Y workers — where 73 per cent are considering a move — and generation X workers, with 66 per cent. Only 36 per cent of baby boomers are considering a move, reflecting their need for stability, insecurity surrounding permanent jobs and a desire to stay in roles longer as the retirement age increases.

Robert Half Asia Pacific senior managing director David Jones says the job-for-life mantra does not exist for younger people and the economic climate means they are more confident they will be able to shift around without being unemployed for long.

“Clearly in the east there’s this stable employment and low unemployment, and when you have a period like that it tends to make people more confident and think that if they take the risk, what’s the chance they’ll be unemployed?” Jones says.

“A lot of young people are mobile in their jobs and they get a new job before they leave the other job. These people in particular have an even higher level of confidence.”

There is no doubt that times have changed, and generational workers have different attitudes to work and life.

Twenty years or more ago workers were likely to save money to buy a house in their early 20s, Jones says, and place greater emphasis on settling into a stable home environment.

Generation Y workers in particular stay at their parents’ home longer, often struggle with housing affordability, and have fewer ties to mortgages and debt, which means job hopping carries less financial risk and, Jones says, becomes less of a factor when looking at what would attract them to a new role.

“It’s indicative of inflation being low, unemployment is low and people aren’t looking for huge wage increases when they’re moving. They are looking at work-life balance and short commutes,” he says. “When people feel good they think about work-life balance. When the economy is bad people move away from work-life balance and work damned hard to keep their jobs.”

The study found 63 per cent of workers rated a shorter commute as their priority when changing jobs; 53 per cent rated work-life balance as a priority, and 51 per cent prioritised a higher base salary. Baby boomers were most interested in cutting the commute, at 73 per cent, compared with generation X at 60 per cent.

Jones says increased mobility also could be a problem for organisations if they are not having conversations with their staff about what their needs and interests are.

“A lot of people are working very hard and there’s not a lot of conversations about jobs, which means it’s easier for people to be courted,” he says. “That’s when they come and talk about shorter commutes and better lifestyles, and people are going to be more predisposed to move and line managers are going to be hard-pressed to keep them.”

Have job, will travel: lifestyle and commute the keys

Jada Parisi is not just typical when illustrating how mobile generation Y workers are; she could be on the study’s cover.

The university graduate, 25, who has a degree in public relations and business, has just resigned from a job she took in November 2014 after undertaking an internship, and is preparing to move from Sydney to Perth.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the PR agency, I’ve absolutely loved working for it,” Parisi says. “It was a lifelong desire to move to Perth in terms of work-life balance. Sydney for me is not a preference.”

Parisi grew up in Cobar, almost 700km west of Sydney, and went to high school in Orange, NSW, before university in Bathurst.

She wants a better lifestyle — which means a shorter commute to work in Perth, more free time, moving in with her best friend and plenty of opportunities in the finance and corporate sector.

“There’s only going to be a 10 to 15-minute commute in Perth, but depending on where you live in Sydney it’s a 45-minute commute. In Perth you can drive to work; in Sydney it’s public transport or you pay for expensive parking.”

Former police officer Christine Black also is moving. The gen Y personal trainer, 25, has had several career moves already and is planning on another change within the next few years, after sticking with her present job to gain some experience.

Black, who left school wanting to be an actress, studied at the Sydney Theatre School before realising she had settled in an insecure business.

Not wanting to spend her life working as a waitress while looking for acting gigs, she enrolled in a bachelor of nursing, and before starting her second round of studies was convinced to try something entirely different again.

“My dad had suggested the police force and I thought it was funny at first but was curious,” Black says.

“The application took me a year and a half and the longer it took the more I wanted to do it.”

Black worked in frontline duties for close to four years before resigning to find a career more suited to her fit and healthy lifestyle.

She had struggled with shift work and wanted a routine, so studied personal training late last year. “I was getting sick a lot from physical burnout,” she says. “I wanted to help people in a more physical way.”

She is now teaching children and mums and bubs classes, and sells fitness clothing on the side.

Black is considering studying sports science down the track in what could be another career move.