"Company Loyalty" Is An Oxymoron

     

A few weeks ago, I played golf with one of my friends who I trained to be a manager, and who was now running his own business.  I taught him a lot about business, and how to manage people, and he in turn applied it to starting his own business with some partners.  I can say right now that he is doing really well, and I should be really happy for him, but I'm not.  I'm pissed at myself that I was too stupid to branch out on my own and instead I tried the corporate way up the ladder of success...bad idea.

His question to me was, "Why the hell did you stay so long?  That company wasn't loyal to you.  They didn't give a shit about any of us."
I reminded him, "I left before you did...remember?"
"Yeah but you went right into another company and tried it again.  Companies have no loyalty to any of their employees.  Hell look at George Zimmer! He started Men's Wearhouse and they gave him the boot.  It's not the same as when our parents were working.  There is no such thing as company loyalty anymore."

    He was absolutely right.  Company loyalty is an oxymoron. If the company you work for perceives that you are a liability, then you're going to be fired, let go, laid off, etc.  Seniority means little, and service to the company means even less. Years ago, the dream was to work for a large Fortune 500 company for 30 years, and then retire with a nice big pension and a house that was paid for already, with your hard work.

     In today's economic climate, recent college graduates have it rough, and if you have a high school diploma it's even harder to fulfill your dreams.  First of all, prospective employees can't find a job with a Fortune 500 company because there are too many "baby boomers" already taking up those positions.  Secondly, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average tenure for an employee in the US is 4.6 years. That is woefully short of the 20-30 years our parents used to put in with their companies.  And lastly, the average young American can't even afford to buy a house in 2015.  Many people still live with their parents just to make ends meet.  So where is our "American Dream"?   Sorry folks but that dream is gone.

I suppose now you're thinking, "Thanks for the great news Doctor Dismal, but what are we supposed to do now?"

For those of you already in the work force and for those of you who are recent college graduates, here is some sound career advice.  Our American Dream has changed but it's not dead...yet.

1. Be Resume Ready - Since there is no such thing as company loyalty anymore it is always best to have your resume updated and ready to go, in the event you are fired, laid off, or for some odd reason you are no longer employed.  Perhaps you ate the boss's birthday cake or slept with his daughter, wife, or worse his pet. In addition, be sure to check and make sure all of your personal and business references are up to date and in good standing.  Hopefully, you haven't pissed off an old friend you listed as a reference, and when a prospective employer calls he/she says, "He/she slept with everyone in the office".
2. Stay In School - Yes this sounds stupid because so many successful business people have no degrees and they just worked hard to realize their dreams.  WRONG!  Those people who were successful despite not earning a degree were lucky, or found the right market, or were born in the 1900's.  Don't be an idiot, get a degree even if you're already successful it's a great accomplishment, and it doesn't mean you're smart.  It just means you got through school.  But when Human Resource people look at a resume they always prefer a degree, and by prefer they mean, "We can't discriminate but you'd better have a degree you loser or we're not talking to you."
3. Be Super Special - A long time ago in the medical field there were just MD's, and that was it.  There were no specialties and doctors were just doctors.  However in today's health care industry there are now so many different doctor specialists, I can't list them all here.  The business world is no different.  If you have a specific and "special" skill set you will be employed for LIFE, and you can pick and choose your hours.  I have friends who are smart but didn't want to go through the entire process of being a doctor so they became nurse anesthetists.  It was a specialty but not necessarily doctor status where you're on call all the time.  These people set their own hours, work like 3 days a week, and make a great living.  A word to the wise...specialize.
4. Expanding Markets - I have always had the luxury of working in industries that would expand with the population.  Our market demand was dependent upon the population, and so as the population expanded so did our market.  If you are working in a declining industry like newspapers, get the hell out now!  You may need to retool yourself but in order to survive you have to change and adapt.  If you're a postal carrier go to work for FedEx or UPS.  If you're too damn lazy to leave a dying industry, then I have no sympathy for you...adapt and survive.
5. Brag Books Are BS - If you have a job interview don't listen to other recruiters and bring in your Brag Book. When I was a manager, if a person brought in a Brag Book, I thought two things immediately, and neither one of them was good. 
• Living In The Past? - If a person has a big book of all there PAST accomplishments that's great but I'm interested in someone who wants to write their own book in the future.  I had one guy I interviewed with a book that was bronzed.  Well not the whole book but he had all his accomplishments in this beautiful wood embossed book, and there was a bronzed placard on the cover.  He handed it to me and all I said was, "Nice book, but I'm not interested in your past, I'm interested in your future."  WTF did he have monks hand paint all the certificates and write the letters inside too? 
• Is It Real?- These types of books are easy to forge because who is going to have the balls to check the numbers and how are they going to verify them?  I have never called another company and had them offer up an employee's Performance Review because it's not legal.  So a prospective employee could put anything he or she wants into a brag book.  How the heck would I know if it's true or not unless I had access to that information. A few years back I had a manager hire a guy after seeing his book, and I said, "Don't trust the brag book."  He did and ending up firing the guy 6 months later for non performance.  It turned out the guy had forged all the awards at Staples and none of them were legit. The idiot had bragged about it to another employee.  I guess now he's all "bragged out".

    If you follow just these five simple steps, you'll at least be ready for the changes in the economy, and you won't have to rely on company loyalty anymore...because after all, it doesn't really exist.  Today's workers have to fend for themselves and we can't rely on the company to take care of us.

Have a great day selling!

-M