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On loyalty to your employer (2018)

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Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#421

Post by weakfish »

no_wizard wrote: post #118
CharlieDigital wrote: post #4

> “When I’m on my deathbed, I won’t look back at my life and wish I had worked harder. I’ll look back and wish I spent more time with the people I loved.” I saw a Reddit thread the other day on r/startups or r/entrepreneur where the OP was talking about how they'll be working until the day he or she dies. I immediately wondered if this individual had a family, friends. Had this person already seen the world and its m…

Not everyone finds 'the work' to be an interrupt either, to be fair. Sometimes the work is the fulfilling part of life, its not having more traditional societal roles. Not to say family and friends aren't important, they absolutely are, but the way I think of it is this way: When I started working on my own independent venture, I was worried about time. I'm not in a position to quit my job, and I don't think its goin…

I’m curious how you maintain the energy to work those free moments. I find myself too tired from work and my social / physical hobbies that when I do have the time, I only have the brain power to play games or watch TV.

In those circumstances, I treat it as a form of self care because it lets me recharge for the next day of work and doing fun stuff with friends or playing hockey or whatever

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#423

Post by weakfish »

einpoklum wrote: post #290
CharlieDigital wrote: post #4

> “When I’m on my deathbed, I won’t look back at my life and wish I had worked harder. I’ll look back and wish I spent more time with the people I loved.” I saw a Reddit thread the other day on r/startups or r/entrepreneur where the OP was talking about how they'll be working until the day he or she dies. I immediately wondered if this individual had a family, friends. Had this person already seen the world and its m…

When I'm on my deathbed, I'll probably wish I'd worked harder - on trying to stop Israel (= where I live) 's genocide in Gaza. That's what I feel most guilty about.

Not to derail the convo, but I’m curious - do you feel extremely in the minority being a citizen of Israel who is anti-Palestinian genocide? I guess I’m curious if expressing that publicly is dangerous or would cause people to keep their distance

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#424

Post by atomicnumber3 »

pklausler wrote: post #395
kemiller wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was leaving a company recently and the fresh grads, with whom I had a good relationship, asked if I had any advice. I said, “Always remember that the company is not your friend. I don’t mean your boss or your coworkers, they might well be or become your friend. I mean the company itself. If all is well, it may be an excellent ally, but the company can and sometimes will turn on you in an instant if its goals change…

My version of this: "The company gives you their best and final job offer every two weeks on your paycheck, and if you get a better offer, it's okay to take it, no hard feelings."

Haha no it's never their best offer. Their profit is literally your unpaid wages. That delta is how this system works.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#425

Post by noisy_boy »

stephen_cagle wrote: post #291
trefoiled wrote: post #259

There's an exception to this I've seen since a relative started working in the game industry. There are executives in that industry who have a retinue of loyal followers. The studios the executive works for may change regularly, but his followers come with him each time. These workers will spend their entire career serving one man, and in exchange he always has a job lined up for them and seems to trust them the same…

That's interesting. I wonder what other industries are like that, where a single person keeps bringing his (mutually) trusted cadre of employees with them? I've heard in the past that the skill of a surgeon is actually more a reflection of the surgeon's team than the actual surgeon. So "great surgeons" are actually people who have "great teams". Sounds similar to me.

It is not so dissimilar in Finance. Senior manager comes, understands the lay of the land for a little while to form a picture of what changes they need/want and pushes out people to get his own people in. There is a lot of politics in banks etc and it becomes very important to them that they get rid of threats or those who won't unquestionably carry out their wishes. It is usually justified as shaking things up. Predictably such things are not great for quality of work but then again, that is secondary in a politically active space that a lot of Finance places are.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#427

Post by catmanjan »

francisofascii wrote: post #140
catmanjan wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the loyal loom operators?

I am guessing some of those loom operators transitioned to mending and patching, and operating the new machines. Guessing we will do the same. Just not all of us will make it.

Yes so probably not a good idea to be loyal to craft, just be loyal to yourself

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#428

Post by fwip »

lurk2 wrote: post #324
fwip wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The small and successful company (~100 people) my brother-in-law works at is currently self-destructing, specifically because the CEO is that exact kind of family-loyalty "father figure" wannabe.

Is it failing because he is being taken advantage of or is it failing because he is trying to take advantage of others?

The latter - he valued loyalty over competency (ending up surrounding himself with yes men), and demanded too much of the competent folk until they burnt out and left.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#429

Post by JSteph22 »

pipes wrote: post #330

Why would anyone be "loyal" to a company? What does that even mean? It makes about as much sense as expecting shareholders to be loyal to the companies they hold stock in.

>Why would anyone be "loyal" to a company? What does that even mean?

Find a company that pays you in cash and stock. They exist.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#430

Post by grandempire »

Exoristos wrote: post #391
swatcoder wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that the benefits of loyalty vary with the size of the organization and the number peers your name gets lost among in the org chart. The larger the company, and the more they're ballooned out with abstract drones chomping on abstract work items, the more loyalty becomes a means for abuse. Turnover is rampant and their processes are built to optimally accommodate it. They're egregores, not people, and the…

I've worked at large companies (a Fortune 50 for ten years), and small (current employer is six people), and in my experience the small businesses treated employees the worst. At a large organization, there is a sense of orderliness and process that sometimes works in the employee's favor; your "loyalty" is on the record and categorizes you in a specific way. In a "family"-size company, it's often the case that only…

> only family members, family friends, or family co-religionists are of value to the owners;

Every strength is also a weakness. Small groups like that can also very effective because their trust runs deeper than work. The real lie is that thousands of unrelated strangers trying to get paid will have each other’s interests at heart.

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