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What is the term to describe how long a given employee remains at a company?

For instance, if I wanted to use it in a sentence: The ______ of Software Engineers in Seattle, WA is about two years.

Maybe it's not one term, but I am struggling to convey this message clearly.

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    Your question says a given employee, which would mean one employee, but your sentence talks about employees (plural). Maybe you meant a given type of employee?
    – Jim Reynolds
    Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 3:06
  • Why are you capitalizing "Software Engineers"?
    – 200_success
    Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 19:31

6 Answers 6

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I think you're looking for tenure, defined by the online Merriam-Webster as

the amount of time that a person holds a job, office, or title

In your example, you would say

The average tenure of Software Engineers in Seattle, WA is about two years.

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  • That's the word- "average tenure", IMO.
    – Misti
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 17:58
  • Thank you, I was using this word before but it didn't sound right to me. I believe I was thinking about the word too much and so it became more and more abstract.
    – PeonProgrammer
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 20:04
  • Still Steaming, Semantic Satiation Struck Subsequently! @PeonProgrammer
    – Mazura
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 21:38
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    If you're worried about the possible legal connotation of the term in education (e.g. "tenure" in the context of teachers, and the change in employment status it implies), you could use the more bland-sounding "length of service", which is also used fairly commonly, but is a bulkier phrase.
    – Mark Thompson
    Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 0:39
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The tenure of Software Engineers in Seattle, WA is about two years.

From the Free Dictionary:

tenure (n.):

1.a The act, fact, manner, or condition of holding something in one's possession, as real estate or an office; occupation. 1.b A period during which something is held.

  1. The status of holding one's position on a permanent basis without periodic contract renewals: a teacher granted tenure on a faculty.

While the most common assocation for many people is that of definition 2., in university settings, it is the widely acceptable with the first definition, as in your sentence.

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  • For most purposes, software engineer would not be capitalized.
    – Jim Reynolds
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 17:54
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    @Jim Reynolds: no, agreed. I was simply copying the OP's sentence, and, while non-standard, capitalizing job titles is fairly common in technical writing.
    – Rusty Tuba
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 17:58
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Another possibility: retention.

Ex: The average retention of Software Engineers in Seattle, WA is about two years.

From Dictionary.com:

Retention: 2. the state of being retained.

Retain: 1. To keep possession of 3. to continue to hold or have

This would be more likely used from the company's point of view. Ex: The company wants to retain its employees.

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Most commonly: turnover, though it carries a precise technical meaning.

the rate at which employees leave a workforce and are replaced.

https://www.google.com.tw/search?q=define+turnover

Another option may be tenure:

the amount of time that a person holds a job, office, or title.

http://i.word.com/idictionary/tenure

Not all definitions of tenure include holding ordinary jobs, however.

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    Turnover is evocative of employee attrition, but tenure fits the bill.
    – Misti
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 17:56
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    Turnover refers to employees LEAVING a company and being replaced. Further, turnover is usually stated as a rate or a non-duration discrete amount, not as a duration as the OP stated: The (blank) of Software Engineers in Seattle, WA is about two years.
    – stackoverflowuser2010
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 20:10
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Longevity literally means the length of a person's life, but is sometimes used figuratively to refer to the length of a person's employment.

If it was clear from context that you were talking about jobs, then writing the longevity of software engineers in Seattle is two years should be understood appropriately. Without context, though, it could be read as saying that after two years they die!

You could also clarify: the longevity of software engineers in a single job is two years.

Lifespan could be used in a similar way.

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the word is Tenure - in a sentence it would be as such

The tenure of Software Engineers in Seattle, WA is about two years. The work tenure of Software Engineers in Seattle, WA is about two years.

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  • Your answer was suggested by others. Have you read other answers?
    – user140086
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 13:00

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