What does loyalty mean to you?
A few years ago I was talking to an HR person who said, with disgust, that there is no more loyalty from employees to the employer.
Anyone want to comment on that? 🙂
I’m a pretty loyal guy. I left my last company at least a year after I should have left, only because they laid me off. I was too loyal… and somehow expected the loyalty to be reciprocated.
How naive.
Every week I hear stories from people who were let go. They gave their companies everything, and many times, went above and beyond. These were people who had cut costs, increased revenue, where a good cultural fit, etc. etc. They were even loyal to their companies.
There is no (or, reduced) loyalty because companies aren’t as loyal as they used to be. No one feels secure in their job. Everyone knows that they could be gone next year, and likely will be gone in five years.  It’s always in the back of people’s minds.
This is why “career management” is so critical. Keep your eyes open, strengthen and make new professional networking connections, and pay attention to what your brand is. Â All three of these strategies/tactics will come in handy that day you get your pink slip.
In my day job, just took our employee survey. One question was like “I am loyal to (company name).” And even though I believe in the direction the company is going, happy to be there, I answered “Strongly Disagree.”
EVERY company will lay you off in a New York minute if management thinks it will help them meet their goals – even if you are the most loyal and productive employee there. Wrong place…you are gone.
We owe companies our work. No doubt. We do NOT owe companies our loyalty.
So important to remind people of this who think that it can’t happen to them (it can)
@Scot, thanks for putting some weight behind this idea with the survey results. Strongly disagree is pretty clear.
@Norm, you are right… I’ll keep carrying this message forward 🙂