跳槽（拼音 tiào cáo），原指牲口离开所在的槽头到别的槽头去吃食。今比喻人离开原来的工作，另谋高就。
Job-hopping (pinyin: tiào cáo) originally refers to livestock leaving their trough to eat at another trough. Today, it is used to describe people leaving their original jobs to seek better opportunities.
“跳槽”一词的由来
你“跳槽”了吗？时下，这是一句很平常、很普通的话。但在明清时代，这句问话却含有狎邪之意，相当不雅。随便翻翻明清的小说或者笔记，“跳槽”一词随时可映入眼帘。徐坷的《清稗类钞》对“跳槽”给出了非常确定的解释：“原指妓女而言，谓其琵琶别抱也，譬以马之就饮食，移就别槽耳。后则以言狎客，谓其去此适彼。”意思是说一个妓女和一个嫖客缠绵了一段之后，又发现了更有钱的主，于是丢弃旧爱，另就新欢，如同马从一个槽换到了另外一个槽吃草，因此，这种另攀高枝的做法被形象地称为“跳槽”。
后来，这个词也可以用来指嫖客移情别恋。与此相佐证，明代冯梦龙编的民歌集《挂枝儿》里就有一首名叫《跳槽》的歌，歌中的青楼女子哀婉地唱道：“你风流，我俊雅，和你同年少，两情深，罚下愿，再不去跳槽。”妓女与嫖客互诉衷肠，最终达成的协议就是“再不去跳槽”。至此，“跳槽”的意思已经非常清楚，那就是专指风月场中男女另寻新欢的行为。可是不知何时，“跳槽”这个充满狎邪意味的词被大家拿来当成变换工作的代语。
The origin of the term “job-hopping”
Have you “job-hopped”? Nowadays, this is a very common and ordinary question. But in the Ming and Qing dynasties, this question contained obscene meanings and was quite indecent. If you flip through novels or notes from the Ming and Qing dynasties, you will always see the term “job-hopping”. Xu Ke’s “Qing Bai Lei Chao” gave a very definite explanation of “job hopping”: “Originally it refers to prostitutes, saying that they have a different Pipa, just like a horse moving to a different trough for food. Later, it refers to prostitutes, saying that they leave one place for another.” It means that after a prostitute and a prostitute have been in love for a while, they find a richer owner, so they abandon their old love and find a new one, just like a horse moving from one trough to another to eat grass. Therefore, this practice of climbing a higher branch is vividly called “job hopping”.
Later, this word can also be used to refer to prostitutes who have changed their feelings for someone else. To support this, there is a song called “Jogging” in the folk song collection “Gua Zhi’er” compiled by Feng Menglong in the Ming Dynasty. The brothel girl in the song sings sadly: “You are romantic, I am handsome, we are young, we are deeply in love, I swear, I will never jump again.” The prostitute and the prostitute confided their feelings to each other, and the final agreement they reached was “never to jump again.” At this point, the meaning of “job hopping” is very clear, that is, it specifically refers to the behavior of men and women in the entertainment industry looking for new lovers. But I don’t know when the word “job hopping” with its obscene connotations was used by everyone as a synonym for changing jobs.