The communications center is a very high-stress environment. The 27 entry level communications dispatchers for Boulder County have been on the job an average of just under two years. The bottom line underlying issue is, it would help if we could pay these people more. The situation is similar with maintenance people in the city of Boulder. Information technology professionals also tend to have shorter tenures, typically an average of three years or less for various city of Boulder job titles.
Supervisors attribute turnover in computer jobs to the competitive high-tech market.
But Roberts Stacy said sometimes short tenures are self-perpetuating. Once employees have been on the job for several years, they become less likely to leave. Advantages of longevity Retaining employees is a plus for local government, said Jody Fitzpatrick, an associate professor of human resources management at the University of Colorado-Denver's Graduate School of Public Affairs. That can lead to repeating past mistakes. In some ways, they help increase the speed of our performance.