Most people choose to leave a job when their needs aren’t being met for some reason. These reasons tend to fall into one of four broad categories:
ALT- Personal reasons, e.g. caring for sick family, having children, pursuing a lifelong dream, wants to move out of the city/state/country, etc.
ALT- Compensation/Career advancement reasons, e.g. being passed over or given no opportunities for promotion, pay does not rise with cost of living, pay/job title is not commensurate with the worker’s responsibilities, etc.
ALT- Job satisfaction reasons, e.g. hostile work environment, burnout, boredom with the role/responsibilities/project, does not get along with other team members, friends on the team are also leaving, etc.
ALT- Job security reasons, e.g. the company/team/leadership/project is not doing well
We’ll set aside personal reasons here because those aren’t really something that the working environment can really affect too much. These other three categories - compensation, satisfaction, and security - are all things that the employer can affect. As long as a worker feels like their needs are being met - i.e. they have enough job satisfaction, compensation, and security to feel comfortable - they are quite likely to stay at their job. As long as that situation remains true for 10+ years, some employees will choose to stay there for 10+ years.
ALTAmusingly enough, my current studio employer collaborates with other studios on a well-known AAA franchise. I actually used to work at one of these other studios 10+ years ago. I was reunited in cross-studio meetings with some of my former coworkers who are still at that same studio 10+ years later. It does happen!
[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]
Got a burning question you want answered?
- Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter
- Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr
- Frequent Questions: The FAQ
