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But if the new employee is a major character, they'll be a little bit different. Perhaps they have a warm heart and honest demeanour that will soften the hardest heart. Or perhaps she'll be the first to turn around and tear their [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] down as vengeance for all the previous employees.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]''. Everyone who tried to teach the class Eikichi Onizuka was assigned to was driven mad, with one in particular joining a cult.
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== Comic Books ==
* This is also the case with Head's manservants in [[The Amazing Screw-On Head]].
== Film ==
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* The main premise behind ''[[The Devil Wears Prada]]''.
* ... as well as [[Morning Glory]], also by screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna. Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is the fourteenth executive producer at Daybreak in eleven years.
* In ''[[Star Wars|The Empire Strikes Back]]'', Darth Vader goes through several commanding officers, often [[You Are in Command Now|promoting the person under them in the process]]. One amusing scene has him force strangle the elderly Admiral Ozzel who [[You Have Failed Me...|had failed him]] while talking with his ship's Captain, Piett. As the admiral gasps his last, he then says "You are in charge now, ''Admiral'' Piett", having promoted him on the spot. Piett's face is priceless as he doesn't know whether to look grateful or worried.
** The Prequels have the Jedi High Council which over the course of 13 years goes through half their original twelve members. Some positions even had to be replaced more than once.
* Mr. Thackery was one of a string of teachers in ''To Sir, With Love''; the kids drove one of his predecessors to suicide.▼
** Arguably worse than the ''[[24]]'' example mentioned below is the position of Queen of Naboo. Granted it is stated to be an elective monarchy with monarchs serving two four-year terms and they can step when they want, but that doesn't change fact in Legends Naboo had four queens over the course of less than two terms. <ref> [[The Phantom Menace]] took place months into Queen Amidala's first term and afterwards she served the maximum eight years before stepping down. The Next Monarch was Queen Jamillia from [[Attack Of The Clones]] who served the minimum four years before being replaced by Queen Neeyutnee from ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]''. Neeyutnee was in turned replaced by Queen Apailana from ''[[Revenge Of The Sith]]'' after maybe one year or so (The Clone Wars officially occurred over three years) but Apailana was assassinated by The 501st Legion only one year after that movie in ''[[Star Wars: Battlefront (series)| Battlefront II]]'' and got replaced by Queen Klyantha. That adds up to about 7 years with four queens. </ref>
▲* Mr.
* The live-action ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost|Casper]]'' movie. The villainess brings in a priest, ''[[Ghostbusters|Ray Stantz]]'' and even a wrecking crew. Eventually, the protagonist's father, a psychic psychiatrist, is contacted to try and exorcise the house.
* [[This Is Spinal Tap|Spinal Tap]]'s drummers have a tendency to expire in a number of strange ways. Two of them spontaneously combusted.
* ''[[The Addams Family|Addams Family Values]]''. The family go through nannies at such a rate, the agency finally suggests they get a
* The therapists [[Good Will Hunting|Will Hunting]] goes through before Robin Williams comes along.
* ''[[Rango]]'' discovers that the position of sheriff of the town of Dirt is like this, complete with a brief shot of a cluster of graves in the town cemetery.
* In ''[[Dirty Harry]]'', it's mentioned that Harry works alone because he tends to go through partners at an alarming rate; this trend holds true as the series progresses through 5 movies. On the positive side, it's mentioned in the first film that only a few of his partners actually get killed, with most only being seriously injured and transfered to other responsibilities.
* In the [[Hulk Hogan]] film [[Mr Nanny]], Hulk's character Sean Armstrong enters the household just as the kids send another nanny packing. The cook tallies off another name on a short list and explains;
{{quote|
'''Armstrong:''' '...But they don't check out.' Well, that doesn't seem like a long list.
'''Corinne:''' Huh! ''(Pushes button on list, revealing it's a '''very''' long list folded over several times)'' }}
* ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]:'' It's implied that no one stays Jay's partner for very long.
* ''[[Cars]]'' (2006): "Jay Limo" (Jay Leno) jokes "I don't know which is harder to find, Lightning McQueen or a crew chief who'll work with him" after an entire pit crew resigns in protest. {{spoiler| Doc Hudson becomes his new crew chief by the end of the film, but this trope still occurs in the sequels due to [[The Character Died with Him|Paul Newman's passing in 2008]].}}
* In the original "Yours, Mine, and Ours", after the Frank's wife died he tried to get a house keeper to mind his 10 children, all of whom were angry over their mother's death and fathers negligence (he spent much of his time gone in the Navy.) They were all shown storming out horrified at the children. The final housekeeper actually set up the first real meeting between the main couple when she embarrassed his eldest daughter to the point that she fainted, necessitating a trip to the infirmery where the Helen works.
== Literature ==
* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[
** Equally, Kings/Patricians before Vetinari and Archchancellors before Ridcully used to have quite short tenures; one king was killed mere seconds after his coronation, and became known to history as King Loyola the Aaargh. Patricians always seemed to end up going crazy and needing to be replaced or assassinated, while the wizards were firm believers in [[Klingon Promotion]]. Vetinari got around this by [[Vetinari Job Security|being irreplaceable]], Ridcully by being virtually unkillable.
*** The last patrician before Vetinari, Mad Lord Snapcase, lasted about a decade. Homicidal Lord Winder is also implied to have lasted a good while. The Archchancellors, by comparison, were replaced once per book, implying tenures counted in single-digit months.
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* In the second series of ''[[Blackadder]]'', Edmund mentions that Head Executioners have a nasty habit of getting into nasty accidents, such as [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much|accidentally brutally stabbing themselves]] in the stomach [[Cut Himself Shaving|while shaving]]. Inevitably, this is just before he gets the job in question.
** Most amusingly, when Blackadder assumes the latest Head Executioner was murdered, he is informed that though they usually are, this time the man just signed his name on the wrong dotted line and they came for him while he slept:
{{quote|
'''Melchett''': He did, but you see, they didn't, they had the right man and they had the form to prove it. }}
** In the first series, the post of Archbishop of Canterbury is similarly undesirable, mostly because previous archbishops had a habit of persuading dying noblemen to leave their lands to the Church instead of to the [[Brian Blessed|KING]].
* Sometimes a mysterious overlord changes the local Boss if they [[You Have Failed Me...|fail in their objective]]. For instance, ''[[The Prisoner]]'': there is often a New Number Two, because the last one failed to break Number Six.
* Mayors in ''[[Picket Fences]]'': Died, or were involved in a scandal of some sort.
* In the made-for-TV movie ''Merlin'', King Vortigern's architects are frequently imprisoned or executed for destructive errors in the construction of Vortigern's "impregnable" castle; the final architect is given a lenient sentence of unemployment, and told to leave before Vortigern changes his mind. Likewise, the Royal Soothsayer seen in the film is the third employed that month, and he meets a similar fate as the final architect: [[Lampshade Hanging|Merlin himself notes]] that the King seems to get through them at an alarming rate, only for the Soothsayer to remark, "He gets through ''everything'' at an alarming rate."
* As Dan Quayle is well aware, [[Murphy Brown]] is a single mother, but beyond that, she can't get a decent secretary and has to keep firing them. Except one, Carol, who is perfect, she's the best one in the world. She's so good, her former boss, [[Bob Newhart]], comes on the show and begs her to come back to him and Jerry. (Of course he'd need to have her back, he was never running a bed-and-breakfast in Vermont, the whole show was [[All Just a Dream]] and he was still a psychologist in Chicago.)
** In the last season, Murphy has to stand before a [[Joker Jury]] made up of all her fired secretaries. After Murphy gives her [[Reason You Suck Speech]] and they let her go, she meets up with one secretary who had perfect qualifications and no trouble with the job whatsoever. Murphy can not remember firing her.
* The Doublemeat Palace in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has a suspiciously high turnover rate - it turns out to be because of a customer who loves the taste of the employees. Fast food servicing indeed.
* ''[[Danger UXB]]'', being about bomb disposal, mentions this early on.
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* Gene Roddenberry's ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'' is both a straight and meta example, given the high turnover rate of its cast and characters. Due to assorted production and inter-personal issues, main actors tended to leave the show after only a season or two, leading to a constantly changing roster of lead characters (which also had elements of [[Klingon Promotion]], ironically enough, as each departing character tended to have their role in the plot replaced by the supporting character most directly under them). In fact the only character who lasted through all 5 seasons was the secondary antagonist and [[The Starscream|Starscream]], Agent Sandoval.
* While they do usually manage to last a couple seasons each, ''[[Law and Order SVU]]'' goes through Assistant D.A.s at a pretty brisk pace, especially when you consider the core of the S.V.U. department has remained constant throughout the years. About 50% eventually ended up being terminated with prejudice (in one case seemingly ''literally'', and another case actually literally) for one reason or another.
* Don Draper on ''[[Mad Men]]'' cannot keep a secretary for the life of him. Season 4 was the biggest highlight of this and near the finale people started taking guesses on what will happen to his latest, Megan.
* In the ''[[Misfits]]'' world, ''do not'' become a parole officer. You will die, your body will never be found, and, seemingly, [[Police Are Useless|the authorities will ignore your disappearance]].
* A high-ranking Vulcan on ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' tells T'Pol that before her, no Vulcan liaison had lasted more than a few weeks on the Enterprise.
** ...and then there's the [[Red Shirt]] security team from [[Star Trek]]'s original series, who are a trope in their own right.
== Music ==
Some groups or bands have historically had a high turnover rate:
* It's said that no guitarist other than John Frusciante was meant to play for the [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]]. Over the course of 27 years, they have gone through 9 guitarists, most of whom didn't last more than a few months.
* [[The Other Wiki]] has a [[wikipedia:Members of The Fall|page]] dedicated to cataloging all the former members of The Fall.
The lyrics to some songs reference the trope:
* ''Le blues du businessman'' (Claude Dubois) begins « J'ai du succès dans mes affaires / J'ai du succès dans mes amours / Je change souvent de secrétaire » without explaining how the businessman obtained such a high turnover rate for secretaries.
== Other ==
* Sheriffs in most Western parodies.
** If this were music, maybe [[Eric Clapton]] shot them? But he didn't shoot no deputy, oh no...
== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', Troubleshooters (the ''player characters'') come in
** Asking what that reason is
* The Cheiron Group of ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]'' goes through employees at an alarming clip. Which is why the player characters can get signed on.
* ''[[Dark Sun]]'' uses Character Trees (each player rolls 4 characters right away), both to swap them between adventures and because after all it's a [[Death World]] and these characters are armored in animal hides and armed with stone spears - if they're lucky.
== Videogames ==
* In one of the ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' [[Visual Novel
* In the ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' game, it's implied the reason that the team refers to the player primarily by nicknames (specifically "Rookie") is due to this trope since your primary purpose after all is to be the team Guinea Pig for highly dangerous experimental technology.
{{quote|
* In ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] 2'', the Royal Seer is responsible for adjudicating between the late king's two sons. Four in a row die [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much|in successive accidents]].
* The Guards in ''[[
== Webcomics ==
* The webcomic ''[[Freefall]]''... every other mechanic Sam has taken on has run away screaming within a day. In some cases literally. But of course, Florence IS a bit different...
* A short arc in ''[[Suicide for Hire]]'' focuses on a normal business offering nachos and other foods to contrast the eponymous job, while tweaking the trope a bit by having the main character be unsuccessful. The [[Crapsack World|incredibly idiotic customers]] typically drive any worker intelligent enough to add insane within a few days. Arcturus lasts a few days before trying to strangle a man with red rope licorice, and only a week before trying to murder a man over a burger. That's still beating the spread by four days.
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' featured, in one episode, a series of flashbacks to the many babysitters who couldn't handle the Freeman boys. They never find one who can. Even the new guy, Uncle Ruckus, lasts about five minutes.
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' ran this with babysitters, before finding a character who was ''[[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo|in no way whatsoever]]'' like Mary Poppins. She is still driven mad by the anxiety of looking after the family.
* In ''[[South Park]]'' many nannies attempted to tame Eric Cartman's horrifying behavior; all rapidly became mad.
** However a suitable caretaker is eventually found... however, it's [[The Dog Whisperer]], who only manages to deal with Cartman's cruelty and racism by treating him like a disobedient yappy dog.
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* The employees of the band [[Metalocalypse|Dethklok]] seem to have a high turnover rate in general, but the ''chefs'' they employ apparently have to be replaced so often that even the band members (who unknowingly cause death and destruction among almost everyone they come in contact with) believe them to be cursed. This seems to end with Jean Pierre, who suffers a horrible accident but survives and continues to serve them after being poorly sewn back together (they even write a song about it called, appropriately enough "Sewn Back Together Wrong").
** Just the training to become a Klokateer has a guaranteed fifty percent death rate: the very first task is to pair off and fight to the death. On the other hand, every recruit that makes it to the branding is insanely loyal.
** Even Jean-Pierre's insanely loyal: right before getting in the accident, he said he'd rather scoop out his brains with a melon baller than miss the opportunity to serve
* The Emperors of Trisol (the water people planet) of ''[[Futurama]]'' tend to last only a week on average. When Fry ascends to the throne we see his royal portrait is already followed by blank frames for Fry's Assassin and Fry's Assassin's Assassin.
** It's implied a few times throughout the series that Professor Farnsworth was used to a somewhat high turnover of the flight crew until the present one managed to avoid death. The dangerous-sounding missions might have something to do with it. On one occasion when the crew doesn't return as soon as anticipated, Farnsworth is seen already welcoming a new crew to Planet Express.
* In the episode when Mrs. Beakley was introduced on ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'', she is preceded by a montage of nannies terrorized by the nephews' antics, but unlike the others she immediately learns their names and can differentiate them.
* Happened to the Sheriff of Scabstone in ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'', the job being taken by Bloaty and Squirmy as the old sheriff continued running across the Fatlands.
** Also happened to Heffer during his stint as a security guard at Conglom-O.
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== Web Original ==
* Level-D personnel are the [[SCP Foundation]]'s equivalent of [[Red Shirt
== Real Life ==
* Debt Collection has an extremely high turn-over rate, with nearly 85% of callers quitting within a year of being hired. The same can be applied to telemarketers, or really any job where you have to call strangers with the objective of getting money. Getting yelled at on a daily basis is not a terribly great incentive.
* According to Eric Schlosser's ''Fast Food Nation'', most major fast-food chains have a 100% turnover rate every year, with the average employee lasting only three months. McDonald's, in particular, is a big offender, and managers have been known to bonus based on how many employees they fire (which saves the company the expense of offering perks like health insurance and PTO). Do note that as with most franchises, different managers may be treated differently especially as the economy changes.
** This McD's manager calls shenanigans. We do bonus based on the number of employees who are fired, it is true. We bonus if we ''don't'' fire them, not the other way around. If you have exceptionally high turnover at your store, it is a good way to get yourself replaced as a manager. She won't lie, turnover is high, but nowhere close to 100%.
* The New York Stock Exchange also has high quitting rates, mostly the ones on the floor.▼
* The most decorated unit in the British Army is a unit specialising in Explosive Ordinance Disposal. There is a reason for this.▼
* Apple's factory in Cork City, at least with production staff. They hire through an agency and it <s> is not unheard of</s> quite frequent that staff would be let go the day they are hired because the order they were hired for is no longer required.▼
* [[wikipedia:List of Prime Ministers of Italy|Prime Minister of Italy]], esp. since 1953.▼
* The retail industry (at least at the store level) sometimes have a turnover rate over 100% for part timers - how is that possible you ask. It occurs when all positions have been refilled more than once in a given year. Full timers average 60% turnover. Anyone who has worked retail can attest that these figures are pretty accurate.
** Awkward hours, pay that averages only slightly better that fast food, constant abuse from customers and corporate don't quite foster faith and loyalty in an organization.
▲* The New York Stock Exchange also has high quitting rates, mostly the ones on the floor.
▲* The most decorated unit in the British Army is a unit specialising in Explosive
▲* Any company that uses a temporary employment ("temp") agency. Apple's factory in Cork City
* Average tenure for a [[wikipedia:List of Prime Ministers of Japan|Prime Minister of Japan]] since the end of [[World War II]] is less than a year each. Because the PMs are the primary [[Scapegoat]] for bad governmental policies, they tend only to last until the next party scandal or cock-up.
▲** [[wikipedia:List of Prime Ministers of Italy|
* Throughout the [[War On Terror]], there has been a bit of [[Black Humor]] amongst the American intelligence community is that this is the case for the third-in-command for Al Qaeda, the job position evidently hitting that sweet spot between low enough in the chain to require exposing himself to actually do his job, and being high enough in the chain to make him a high-value target for one of the most powerful modern militaries in the world.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
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▲[[Category:High Turnover Rate]]
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