The current system of punishing people who stay long at a company is still in place because it works, and it works very well.

Lots of employees here have bought into this company spread propaganda that job hopping like in the US will make you unemployable in the future.

As the employees get older and get tied down with families and homes and also Job Stockholm Syndrome they're less likely to shop around for new jobs so the savings on salaries on seniors being paid below market are huge.

Is it working well? Average software projects, codebases and their management are messy almost disasters. For many reasons. But half a team being either new or right before leaving is definitely not helping. The fact that people leave before they can find the right match position in company or team, learn it well and spend some time there is not helping.

And afaik, large companies and large successful projects tend to have more stable core team behind them.

> Lots of employees here have bought into this company spread propaganda that job hopping like in the US will make you unemployable in the future.

But is that ultimately true? It feels to me that the companies hold the power to make that true, regardless of the propaganda. So even if you try to job hop, after a certain age they have all the power to make you unemployable. Am I wrong? (I hope I am)

I think it depends if the job is a "lifelong-learning" type of job or not. I don't think anyone would say a doctor is unemployable because they moved to a new hospital every 2 years. I think software development is a lifelong-learning type industry where job hopping can actually be beneficial - you get to re-hone your existing skillset from a new perspective and are forced to constantly learn new tools.

I think constant job hopping is bad in 3 situations: 1) If you work a non lifelong-learning job. 2) If you work a job that is mostly industry-specific relationship based. 3) If you are jumping around to different job roles entirely, where you never really become exceptionally talented at any single role.

My general rule of thumb for deciding when to job hop is when I feel as if I've stopped learning new things.