Work factors that influence employees' skills revealed

A new study has revealed that starting off at a company when the good times are rolling or when they aren't doesn't affect the employee's long-term success, as what makes the difference is how closely the economic environment an employee lands in initially aligns with the one they end up working in later.

According to the study by University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, a person's long-term work skills, habits and routines can be shaped or "imprinted" by the economic environment they start off in and employees arriving in a high-profit time may do better in the long-run because of a wealth of work opportunities to build their skills and reputation.

The paper by Andras Tilcsik said that both groups may find themselves at a later disadvantage if there's a substantial shift in circumstances and they can't really say that one is necessarily better than the other.

Those "good times" employees might not be as adept in how to extend projects when things slow down and the "lean times" employee might not be nimble enough to keep up with the pace when a company's fortunes shift into high gear.

Tilcsik suggested that companies that want to help their employees avoid the "curse of extremes," can try to diversify new employees' early work experiences, giving them opportunities to try work that more closely resembles normal circumstances.

The paper was published in the Administrative Science Quarterly.