Page 57 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

Keeping the People Who Keep Your Business in Business 37

Free-agent worker Typically someone in their 20s or 30s,
a free spirit in the workforce who won’t hesitate to move
from one job to another or even jump from one career to
another when the urge strikes.This person might be VP of Talent at a
Fortune 500 company one year and backpacking in the Himalayas the
next.The mentality of the free-agent worker is that life is too short to
spend it all in one spot and that security is just a superstition. Free-
agent workers won’t commit their loyalty to one company easily, but
only if their values and personal needs are being respected and met.

When Poor Retention Bruises Morale

Employee retention is a significant factor that you can easily over-
look when struggling to maintain morale, especially if you’re man-
aging young employees moving up the ranks. Employees in their

20s and 30s aren’t buying into the I’ll-work-here-until-I-retire
myth. On top of that, job security is just a superstition to that gen-
eration of employees, who’ve witnessed firsthand the overnight
death of dot-coms worldwide. These employees consider them-

selves to be “free-agent workers,” not company “lifers” like their
parents and their grandparents.

Expect Two to Three Years Max—or

Offer Something Better

Most 20-somethings and 30-somethings are looking to make
their mark fast and furious and then move on to something dif-
ferent and more challenging, which may or may not fall into the

realm of the traditional workplace. These free-spirited workers
often pull up stakes and do things like join the Peace Corps,
start a business from home, or just freelance in the virtual work-
place. Tom Peters warns that no employer should expect more

than two good years out of any employee; to keep them longer
than that, you’d better come up with something pretty damn
extraordinary. It’s that simple ... and it’s that hard.