TL/DR: No more pensions so people are job hopping to go where the money is. The medical field is similar to the IT field in that respect.
This thread is similar to
@chiefjason thread "Corporate loyalty to employees is dead, if it ever existed" here:
https://www.carolinafirearmsforum.c...if-it-ever-existed.160954/page-2#post-2593291
Just my opinions. Could be right. Could be wrong. Could be a mix of both.
The entity I work for stopped pension plans for new hires on January 1, 2010. Anyone hired on or after that date does not get a pension. This is not unique to my employer. Nearly all corporations/companies have done away with pensions. Some government jobs still have them but, for the most part, pensions are gone. That leaves benefits and pay. Every medical entity around will say "We offer excellent benefits" or some verbiage along those lines on their website. With all of them offering "excellent benefits" that leaves pay. Guess where most people will go? Whomever pays more.
I work full time for Entity A. I've been there since 1996. I've been prn at Entity B since 2004. Whenever one does something, it's usually not too long before the other one does it. Entity B had market adjustment/pay evaluations a few weeks ago and gave most everyone doing bedside a raise, but not everyone (I personally know of one nurse who has been there 32 years. She got 16 cents! She was told she was at top pay already). Guess what entity A has started doing the last week? Yep, market adjustment/pay evaluations. These adjustments are great for new hires fresh out of school. Not so much for people who have been their for years. They are trying to get new nurses/NAs to come on board by increasing pay. I get it. It's a business. They need help. Everyone is short staffed. Entity B offers $20,000 and $30,000 sign on bonuses for 3 and 4 year commitments. The downside I see is that people who have been their for years get very little "adjustments." The prn rate for RNs at Entity B WAS $1 LESS and hour that what they start recent graduates RNs out now. With the market adjustment PRN rate went up. Of course I am thankful for the increase, but I also have the suspicion Entity B knew it HAD to increase it to keep prn employees from leaving.
What I see happening? As I mentioned there is no more pensions. The seasoned staff (the ones who have been there a while but not long enough to get the pension) are going where the money is. They are leaving and driving down the road a few miles for $2-$4 more an hour. A lot of them went to traveling. It was paying big money during Covid. It still is. I have heard that both entities that I work for want to "do away" with travelers. I don't see how they can, at least for the immediate future, since they are already short-staffed. The recent graduates that are being hired? I believe they will stay for 2-3 years to get their Med-Surg experience and then leave for more money. They will leave Entity B and go to Entity C, etc. The cycle will repeat.
No more pensions, so now what? 401k (or some variant). I've read about TINA on one financial website. There Is No Alternative (TINA). I have been trying to stress to my oldest to invest early and invest often in the S&P 500/Total Stock Market. I wish I had started sooner and contributed more. A debate on the pros and cons of the stock market is better left to
@tanstaafl72555 But I read on the Bogle forum something that made sense (to me at least). If the top 500 companies in the stock market are having major issues then we have bigger problems to worry about (think depression, etc).
