Work is a Verb

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Year three is when you become dangerous.

You're not learning the system anymore. You're building it. You know which "urgent" pings can wait, which processes are real, and how to ship decisions without six meetings.

That's also when the LinkedIn messages start looking good.

Last week I introduced REMOTE Score. This week: the "R" for Retention, and why it matters more than you think.

The Retention Gap

Companies love talking about ramp time.

Month 1: 25%
Month 3: 75%
Month 6-12: Finally 100%

Those first months are expensive. You're learning tools, people, acronyms. Normal tax on productivity.

But here's what nobody measures: there's a massive gap between doing your job and peak effectiveness.

Real effectiveness takes time:

Learning which processes are theater
Building trust across teams
Going from executing your craft to pushing its boundaries

That deeper effectiveness peaks around years 3–7.

Skill + context + relationships = better work, and organizational impact

Now looking at the data:

Median tenure: 3.5 years
Ages 25-34: 2.7 years
20%+ of workers: less than 1 year

Most companies pay for 6-12 months of ramp, get 12-24 months of solid work, then watch people leave right as they enter their highest-value window.

Then restart the cycle.

If you're a leader: measure the right thing

Retention isn't "did we avoid backfilling?" It's: "Do people stay long enough for us to benefit from their peak effectiveness?"

Three moves:

1. Track tenure distribution, not just turnover
Don't stop at "15% annual turnover." Ask:

How many make it past year 3?
Where do your best people cluster: 0-2, 3-5, or 5+ years?

2. Do the departure math
Someone leaves at month 18? Here's what happened:

You paid the 6-12 month ramp tax
You got 6-12 months of full productivity
You captured zero years 3-7 upside

3. Rebalance your budget toward keeping people
You'll quietly spend 50-200% of salary to replace someone. What if you redirected 10-15% into:

Manager training for remote teams
Clear growth paths
Real recognition and feedback
Proactive comp conversations

In a REMOTE Score world, retention isn't "no one quit lately." It's: We don't throw people away just because their worth has grown.

This matters for each of us too.

Job hunting is not fun. Knowing you won't be doing it again next year? Obvious win.

But strong retention signals more than stability. It signals an environment where human connection is possible. (How long would you watch The Office if the cast changed every 6 months?)

It means people stick around long enough to show you the ropes. And that the "competitive" comp in the job description.... might actually be competitive.

📰 REMOTE RUNDOWN

📉 Debunking the Job-Hopping Myth: This piece pulls apart the lazy “Gen Z never stays anywhere” narrative with BLS data. Median tenure for 25–34 year olds in 2024 is 2.7 years, only a hair lower than Boomers at the same age.

📚 UK campaigners push four-day school weeks as a retention lever for teachers: The 4 Day Week Foundation is urging trials of four-day weeks in schools in England and Wales, citing burnout, record vacancies, and the need to improve teacher wellbeing and retention. Scotland is already exploring flexible four-day models, while England’s Department for Education is still insisting on five days of pupil attendance.

⚖️ Australia debates making 2-day-a-week WFH a legal right: Australia’s Senate is reviewing an amendment to the Fair Work Act that would give employees a legal right to work from home up to two days per week. A committee is taking evidence from unions, academics, and employers, with supporters arguing that flexibility boosts wellbeing, productivity, and equity – and should be a baseline right, not a perk.

This is the second in a series on REMOTE Score. Next week: Engagement and why so many companies are are bad at measuring at and worse at promoting it.