Why resume gaps and job loyalty are BS
This week, as Twitter employees chose between three months of severance or committing to “working long hours at high intensity,” folks at my company weighed in on Slack.
Most advocated for “take the money and run.” One person suggested that any tech company would understand a gap in employment if it meant leaving Twitter. Or if it meant leaving a job after only being there for a short while.
On the one hand, that rings true. On the other, any concern over employment gaps or preference for job loyalty is complete BS.
There are plenty of justifiable reasons for employment gaps beyond a hostile takeover of your former company:
Becoming a parent and daycare costs more than your current salary.
Becoming the full-time caretaker for a loved one whose health is declining.
Going through a complex medical diagnosis and treatment.
Pursuing a passion or hobby while sustaining yourself in the gig economy.
Taking time off to travel or volunteer or go back to school.
Some of these, like going back to school, might be relevant to add to your resume. But some, like enduring medical treatment, are not. Nor should you have to explain that to a prospective employer.
As for quitting your job before you’ve been there a few years, there are also plenty of justifiable reasons. Musk’s ultimatum was clear, but he’s not the only executive requiring long hours at high intensity—without appropriate compensation. Many outside of Twitter have been quietly quitting or loudly quitting for similar reasons:
Inadequate employee compensation and benefits.
Minimal career development opportunities or unfulfilling work.
Bad management or company culture.
Nonexistent work-life balance and burnout.
Lack of company innovation, growth, or quality of output.
Unfair treatment or harassment.
How did we get to this point where we’re afraid to step away from our careers for any stretch of time? Why should we stick it out at a bad job for a few years, when we’ve realized we’re powerless to improve our happiness or opportunities?
The short answer: companies’ bottom lines. The longer answer: the U.S.’s toxic work culture. (And lack of social safety nets.)
Faulty logic & misplaced responsibility
For more than three years, I worked as a Human Capital Consultant in the Organization Transformation & Talent service line at a Big Four firm. The name alone might suggest it was the epitome of a bullshit job, aka when you can’t even explain what the point of your work is. (Also, seeing humans as “capital” or “resources” is inherently problematic.) I won’t lie—in some ways, consulting can be a bullshit job. But I also learned a lot about the power behind any successful business: its people.
And one of our evergreen recommendations to clients was investing in employee retention strategies. Why? Turnover is very expensive. When employees leave, there’s a significant impact on morale, culture, and productivity, as well as the loss of institutional knowledge. Add onto that the cost of recruiting, onboarding, and training for their replacement.
So it’s no wonder hiring managers want to ensure a prospective employee is reliable—someone who won’t up and quit. Hypervigilance of employment gaps and job durations is likely an attempt to suss out who’s going to stick around.
Though I understand this logic, it’s faulty at best. For one, it doesn’t account for all the good reasons one might have employment gaps or shorter job durations. Plus, it puts the responsibility of career continuity and job loyalty on the employee, absolving companies of any blame.
But guess what? No one actually cares.
If you’re an employee who knows their self-worth and decides to quit because you’re not valued or treated well or someone who has to leave the workforce for personal reasons, you should do so—without repercussions or fear.
You may find that it takes a few months to secure your next job. Or you may decide to just live for a while after devoting yourself to your job for too long. That is okay. That does not disqualify you.
Many HR departments have already shifted their perspective on employment gaps and job loyalty, recognizing that an employee’s skills and experience are a better indicator of a good fit. And if a candidate is a good fit, and the company has solid retention strategies, that prospective hire is not likely to quit, regardless of whatever previous employment gap or job duration might suggest.
But our cultural conversation has been slow to catch up. We still judge Millennials and Gen Zers as flighty or noncommittal for job switching. We glorify travel nomads who visit gorgeous places but only experience them from their van window because they’re still tethered to their laptops. We stigmatize stay-at-home parents as unambitious without considering the obscene cost of childcare. We attach someone’s worth to their work; we champion self-deprivation over joy; we prioritize personal advancement over community well-being.
We forget that our purpose in life is just to live well—not to make a company money or kill ourselves trying to clean up their messes.
So for anyone else out there watching the Twitter saga unfold like their favorite reality TV show, I implore you to disregard nonsensical concerns about resume gaps and job loyalty. Judging by the fact that an estimated 75% of Twitter employees seem to have chosen life over work, I’d say we’re making progress toward calling out BS when we see it.
