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Loyalty and Layoffs

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Re: Loyalty and Layoffs

#4
Great point, if not a little acrimonious, about the role of a CEO in a corporation. Even though the CEO (or anyone over your head for that matter) may enjoy you as a person, or even find you to be the perfect guy for the job, the bottom line still means a lot more than your life. I think it's important to remember that it's okay to love your job and the company you work for, as well as be loyal to them, but that loyalty goes both ways. I'm loyal to my employer as long as they loyally pay me and don't treat me like a piece of shit. But there's no love. My teammates are awesome but if, say, Github gave me a call and wanted to hire me, I'd be giving my two weeks tomorrow. And if Github ended up being a bad fit, I can always keep looking. As a Ruby developer in Philadelphia, I'm always being courted by recruiters and job offers, because there are so few of us here.

Re: Loyalty and Layoffs

#5
When he said the first story happened in 2002, I was expecting to hear a story about getting your workstation as a severence package.

I knew so many people during the crash who had the most random computer and office equipment. All 'acquired' when their company went out of business.

Aeron chair. Anthro cart. Sun Ultra 10, loaded. $4,000 Toshiba laptop. Occaisonaly some Cisco kit or a fairly beefy server. "This used to run dot com."

How'd that work? Didn't the creditors or management care?

Re: Loyalty and Layoffs

#7
At some point in the last 5 years, sitting in my pen--ahem, I mean cubicle--I came to the realization that the the subject noun of the term "Human Resources" is "Resources" not "Humans". If you think your boss is your friend, he's either a shitty boss or a shitty friend.

Re: Loyalty and Layoffs

#8
I'm working at a big company where most employees have worked for a very long time. On my team, besides me, the person who has worked the shortest time is 9 years. The next one after that: 15 years. Most managers and senior engineers have worked here for 20 years or more. They've constructed their whole life around this job, it's almost sad. If in their 20 years have switched jobs, it was within the company. I'm not trying to be patronizing, it's just that The Company is not doing well, and I think there will be very tough times ahead for many these people, and most of them seem to think The Company will always be there to pay the bills. There's this group think going on that "we've had similar crises before, but we always get through it". This time is different, but they won't realize it. The world is moving a lot quicker today.

I think our younger generation is much more weary of being loyal to corporations. We've seen what happens in economic crises, and most of our lives have been just that: one big economic crisis after another.

Re: Loyalty and Layoffs

#9

I'm working at a big company where most employees have worked for a very long time. On my team, besides me, the person who has worked the shortest time is 9 years. The next one after that: 15 years. Most managers and senior engineers have worked here for 20 years or more. They've constructed their whole life around this job, it's almost sad. If in their 20 years have switched jobs, it was within the company. I'm not…

I think hanging around at a single place is all right, but you have to be really focused on staying current. I've seen people who didn't and the result was not pretty.

Re: Loyalty and Layoffs

#10
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know she didn't? By the way, I've seen countless Janets get laid off as well.

She fought for her team, not herself.

Not for "the team", but for individual persons like the OP. The post in fact makes that distinction.
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