On the lighter side I Googled "loyalty" and came up with the following:
Ol' Johnny was a unique individual, to say the least.
Posted on 09/07/2007 12:34:26 PM PDT by qam1
A lot of employers aren’t all that loyal themselves either these days.
You had the right attitude. I will say that it’s very hard to live by that rule if you’re working for the wrong corporation though. I’ve seen a lot of sales people ground up in the corporate blender.
I was downsized recently from a property that absolutely could not afford to lose the manpower but in the upper management’s infinite wisdom, decided that because certain functions had been transferred to the corporate office that it was time to cut labor costs. That this cuts down on the quality of the lives of customers (reduced knowledge base of workforce, drastically reduced hours) AND employees (added burdens, little to no increase in pay) means nothing.
it’s not even REALLY about making money for the company because that would be about pure profit. In many cases what I see is that each mid to upper manager is looking to boost their resume with quantifiable ‘results,’ so they can move on to cushier posts. And the company is interested in showing numbers to stockholders, which in many cases are just part of a vast shell game that don’t reflect the reality of the moment or market.
There’s no loyalty out there and you’re being played for a fool if you think there is any to be found.
One reason I like privately owned companies is that there is at least a CHANCE that they will have created a different ethos and you might actually see a ‘team’ and ‘loyalty’ to reasonable extents.
I’m as pro-capitalist as you’ll find. Well, maybe there are a couple people. Anyways, one thing I noticed about corporations is that instead of REAL profit and growth being the prime mover (as we’re told) what really happens is that decisions are NOT made with the long-term reputation or security of the company in mind (reputation when you’re dealing with customers who have alternatives is pretty important) but stock prices and personal objectives.
Sure, my main concern is getting paid for the work I do but I wouldn’t do a disservice to a customer or the company just to make some more money.
So the execs get to go in front of the stockholders with numbers that may or may not accurately reflect the market or the company’s health AND you get managers who are interested in making a name for themselves then jumping right to another ‘opportunity’ so they can make even more money and step up the ladder.
There are some exceptions but they are usually when the founder is still a strong part of the company’s direction or when he/she is still the controlling stockholder.
If you’ve ever worked in retail or really anything ‘lower level’ that interacts closely with customers, you see how they push these kids to get people to sign up for the store credit card or some other nonsense and it’s the supervisors and the execs who get the bonuses for whipping the employees.
And what do the people (some who really do great jobs selling this garbage) who do the REAL work get (keep in mind they get in trouble and sometimes fired for having ‘low numbers’ for something that really was never part of the job when they were hired or mentioned to them?)
They get a raffle, a free CD or some such nonsense. meanwhile, the person who just told someone else to tell the cashiers or sales associates to get to work OR ELSE gets his next vacation paid for.
Absolutely ridiculous.
At a certain public television network that I was at for about a decade, we essentially got the same stuff for several years and it is probably still going on.
I am glad I am free of the ugly green star man which became the new logo. There are lots of rumors about how that ugly design came to be. Most of them involve a lot of money. That is for another day.
To get a raise there you either had to be a favorite, have something on somebody, or be willing to sue. I was in the last category. The little leader upstairs favored a couple and the rest, like me, really didn’t matter.
I got a little proof of some underhanded stuff going on and after failing to have a reasonable conversation, told him abruptly what was going to happen after I make some phone calls to people downtown that had law degrees and made way more than he did. It was the first time I ever heard panic from him. I had a case and all I had to say was “veteran”.
The last thing he wanted was to be closely looked at. No doubt others past and present would love to know certain things and have some questions answered.
A big one that is one some minds still, even though I have left, is why no one never, ever, no matter what ever can get promoted out to something else. The “leader” started out at the bottom and has apparently forgotten about it.
As as a follow-up, I have heard from friends still there, that no one in house applied for my slot (knew better) and got very few others from outside and it has not been filled. It probably won’t be in the interest of saving precious pennies that the “leader” can claim for himself and do nothing for the working people.
I am so glad I sliced ties with that organization with the way things are run these days. The previous CEO was a great guy and was making good changes which upset some good ole boys. Unfortunately, he died unexpectedly and many miss him. Things went downhill from there.
Things aren’t perfect but they are a major improvement in my new line of work.
My husband has worked up the ladder, ten years after leaving the Navy. He has worked for four different employers. With each job move, he found a better position in which to use his skills and better benefits. He works for himself, in a sense. He keeps his eye on the prize and makes it to that goal by action... not sitting still in one place. It just isn’t in his nature to wait for a raise that won’t be there. In ten years he has increased his pay by about $30,000. He is pleased with his progress.
Sincerely, good for you both. My situation was much different but I don’t want to leave tear stains on the forum so I won’t go into that. :-)
I will say that it would have been much easier to leave my job if not for the fact of sacrificing benefits like the pension. In fact, I believe the job would have been much better if they’d known that people like me could leave. As it was, they knew that, after some number of years on the job, their employees were mostly ‘trapped’ employees. They played a statistical game of employee retention.
I won’t pretend to understand the risks that you took by staying. But everyone must look at their own situation and decide accordingly. Perhaps your former employer has learned a lesson, the hard way.
I hope you still find opportunities, when you look for them. Unless of course you are enjoying retirement.
Retirement scares me, a little. I can’t imagine what the future holds for us. But we’ll get there, one day.
Your #51 contains some great information. Thanks.
Great story - my comment was based on less *technical* employment - but your example is illustrative of *valuable tenured experience* being undervalued by employers.
Thanks for your common sense with a smile;)
When you anticipate a long-term relationship (10 or more years), you naturally have some interest in the long term viability of the place. When you know you're likely to leave (or worse, get laid off) you tend to have minimal interest in the fate of the company beyond the end of your stay there.
I’m as loyal to my company as it is to me.
In short, always have a bug out plan.
Companies keep telling themselves that...and keep finding out just how wrong they are.
_______________________________________________
Absolutely. I worked one company for two years (management) then went back to sales for another for five years (MCI - a nightmare where they demanded that you bleed orange and rewarded mediocrity). I ended up at UUNET right after Bernie bought it and made it part of WorldCom.
Bernie was a thief but he championed the entrepreneurial attitude and scorned those who ran with the pack. His attitude was 'pay people for what they sell with no ceiling and the good ones will hit it out of the park'. It worked, a few of us earned over a million.
” Frankly, many of those people were professional slugs. They worked as slowly as possible to give the impression that the work was difficult and time consuming.”
Interesting story. I’ve noticed that the “professional slugs” are also the ones who tear more productive workers down through office politics, character assassination and outright sabotage. If they were forced to perform on such a level as the more productive employees, they wouldn’t have time to engage in these destructive practices, which in my opinion, are the only reason these scum manage to survive for so long. They seem to take pride in their behavior. The logic behind that completely escapes me....
BTW, most of the folks I’ve seen who operate like this are liberals. I don’t know if that’s just a coincidence or not.
The best people I ever worked with were conservative Christians and a Mormon. This goes back to how dumping God ruins everything.
Very good. Glad to hear it. Some would have capped you, but they let you earn as much as you could, raising their numbers in the process. That’s smart IMO.
On the lighter side I Googled "loyalty" and came up with the following:
Ol' Johnny was a unique individual, to say the least.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.