Does Job-hopping Help Career Advancement? Job Mobility Decreases Work Desirability by Reducing Cognitive Trust and Affective Trust

Americans employees in general, and millennials in particular, like to change jobs. According to several national surveys, millennials are a job-hopping generation, changing jobs three times more frequently than non-millennials, and 75% of millennials believe that frequently changing jobs helps advancing their careers. However, whether job mobility can actually help career advancement remains unclear. Drawing from the literatures on mobility and trust, we consistently found that job mobility decreased one's likelihood to be hired (Study 1) or chosen as work partners (Study 2), because it reduced other people's cognitive and affective trust in the mover (Study 1). In addition, we identified two distinct components of mobility: entry mobility and exit mobility. Whereas entry mobility increased work desirability by enhancing cognitive trust and affective trust, exit mobility decreased work desirability by reducing cognitive trust and affective trust; the negative effect of exit mobility was much stronger than the positive effect of entry mobility (Study 3). The negative effect of exit mobility even held after accounting for voluntary vs. involuntary exit (Study 4). Whereas previous research has focused on how job mobility affects movers (i.e., those who move between jobs), our work illuminates how job mobility affects observers (i.e., those who react to movers).