Workers who stay with one employer may move up faster, perform better and earn more over time than those who frequently change jobs, Matthew Bidwell, PhD, a professor of management at the Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, wrote in an Oct. 27 Wall Street Journal opinion article.
Dr. Bidwell argued that the long-standing advice to treat one’s career like free agency may be misguided. He called the benefit of staying put the “insider advantage,” adding that it shows up in promotions, performance, pay and even workplace happiness.
Most career advancement happens through internal moves, Dr. Bidwell wrote. Studies he cited found that switching employers usually leads to a job at a similar level, while moving within a company is far more likely to come with a meaningful step up. He wrote that new employers know little about outside candidates and are often reluctant to trust them with bigger roles.
New hires can also take two to three years to fully establish themselves at a new organization, according to Dr. Bidwell, as they build relationships and learn its culture and processes. And while job changes often come with a raise, longer-tenured employees tend to earn more over the long run, he wrote.
Strong relationships with co-workers and trust in managers are closely tied to job satisfaction, and those bonds tend to grow with tenure. Dr. Bidwell said changing employers can still be the right move for workers who are unhappy, underpaid or who do not see room to grow internally.
His conclusions differ from earlier research on job changers. A study from Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cornell University and New Brunswick, N.J.-based Rutgers University found that people with a history of changing jobs got up to speed in about two months, compared with five months for most new hires. By six months, the performance gap between the two groups had closed. The researchers said those results could benefit employers that need immediate results.
The two bodies of research look at different time frames. The Cornell and Rutgers study focused on the first months after a hire. Dr. Bidwell’s conclusions focus on promotions, performance and pay over years.
Both time frames matter for hospitals and health systems. The national RN turnover rate stood at 17.6% in 2025, and the average hospital loses $5.19 million a year to nurse departures, according to a 2026 national nurse staffing report. Early-career nurses are especially likely to leave: turnover reached 22% among Gen Z RNs and 21% among millennials, and engagement tends to dip after the first six months on the job, according to Press Ganey.
That six-month mark is about when the Cornell and Rutgers study found new hires and job changers performing at similar levels. Under Dr. Bidwell’s findings, it is also short of the two to three years he said new hires can need to fully establish themselves.
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