Loyalty to a company. Do you have any?

Alanp

When I landed a job as a service engineer I couldn’t believe I was getting paid to do the job, travelling all over North Yorkshire in some beautiful areas, there weren’t any mobile phones in those days so you used a pay phone to get your calls for each day, then fifteen years later we were taken over by another company, most of the staff and managers moved across and it was ran as a standalone group, ( it was a large company who bought us) then they got into difficulties and we were bought by a company who had a very poor reputation in the business, bullying, long hours ect, so was I loyal..?, to the first two , yes, I thought it was a job for life, the last one…! I managed four years then, being in a fortune position with a good private pension, i ( and many others) left, I could retire but at 61 I still have a bit more work life left in me, I now work in a care home doing the maintenance , it’s much more relaxing and I can go at my own pace, am I loyal to them..?, honestly no, I’m only loyal to me…but, unless things radically change , I hopefully will see out my working life there…

Savvy_Sue

On the question of loyalty, I'll just post a link to a poem called The Indispensable Man. 

nyermen

Like others, my loyalty / respect is to colleagues and customers.  Tomorrow the company could have a new head (and regularly has over my career), and everything changes again.

One thing I note is that people often say "they don't realise what they're losing until its gone" (knowledge etc) - I've heard that from every colleague whos left in the past.  The trouble is, companies - while not prepared for a specific loss - are playing the numbers even there.  There may be X people who "are the only ones who know certain stuff", eg. across X knowledge areas.  They just account for the savings of paying those X people less, against covering the costs of the one or two who then quit. There's also been a few colleagues who thought they'd leave a huge problem, but really didn't...

Thats for product/specialist roles.  For Sales roles on the other hand - if you're any good, they almost expect you to move on (in my industry they push the commission bars until you can't make them).  And then if/once you miss targets, you're gone anway.

Alanp

Savvy_Sue said:

On the question of loyalty, I'll just post a link to a poem called The Indispensable Man. 

That reminds me of a little ditty , I think penned in the days of the 3 day week
” if you work hard 
and do your best
youll get the sack
like all the rest, 
but if you laze
and fool about
you’ll stay to see the job right out”

prowla

A top performer (always #1 or #2) only achieves bonus one month of 12?

I think that says how much the company cares about your loyalty.

Jonathan_Powell

prowla said:

A top performer (always #1 or #2) only achieves bonus one month of 12?

I think that says how much the company cares about your loyalty.

Tell me about it. I was expecting a full bonus last pay day but didn't get one. I only missed target because some accounts were removed from me (and subsequently moved back after a week) before final tallies so the three sales were attributed to someone else. So, I actually did hit target and it was agreed that I would get paid full bonus but when pay day came, I was told they would only pay it if I agreed to stay. Never come across such nonsense in my life. Glad I've left this place. 

TELLIT01

I worked for one company from 1992 to 2004.  Up to 2002 it was a great place to work.  Managers, right up to MD, and staff were all on first name terms with each other.  If there were issues we could go direct to the relevant manager to discuss it.  We were well paid - and worked hard, good bonuses, and interesting work.  There really was respect and loyalty to the company and to each other.  Then we merged with another company and the structure and everything else changed.  We were all just numbers because the new management structure was all in an office over 100 miles away.  I stuck it out for 2 years and then took voluntary redundancy.

Just one example of the attitude of the new management.  The IT support team, of which I was a member were being moved to an office 35 miles away and staff in our current office were worried about the level of support they would get.  I raised this with the new management team who said "Tell them one of the team will be there most days if that will shut them up, but you won't be"

Manxman_in_exile

This sort of discussion always reminds me of football 'phone-ins on the radio.

The fans ring up and moan about the manager or a particular player and complain about how utterly useless and incompetent they are, and that the club should just get rid of them -  then when a manager or a player decides to move somewhere else, the fans all moan about them showing disloyalty to the club and that they should be ashamed of themselves for wanting to go somewhere better.

Loyalty in football and employment - like everywhere else - is usually a one way street...

funnyvideo

Not at all. The last company I worked for as a large one and I never met the majority of senior management so I seriously doubt they even noticed I left. Comparing the company when I started to when I left I had a different line manager, different department head, the CEO also changed, we were in different offices and the company had a different name so there wasn't really anything to be loyal to.

I'm now at a small newish company where I'm on speaking terms with the CEO. It's not a bad place to work and I like the CEO but I'm sure that one day he'll sell the company and move on like he did with his last company. Whether that would make the company a better or worse place to work I don't know. I may leave before that happens though, it's better to leave a company when you're still happy there than waiting until you're miserable there.

onylon

I think you got your answer when they stripped your bonus. If you have a better offer then why stay with people who will pull that kind of stunt?

Loyalty has to go both ways and companies are rarely loyal to their staff.