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Early on in my career, I learned a lesson from a retiring colleague -- a former Army Colonel, "never be loyal to a company because the company won't be loyal to

Early on in my career, I learned a lesson from a retiring colleague -- a former Army Colonel, "never be loyal to a company because the company won't be loyal to you." You can be loyal to individuals, and people can be loyal to you. But the company? Nah. Lots of people get burnt really early in their careers thinking that showing intense loyalty to an organization will be rewarded when no such thing happens -- an "organization" doesn't care. At best, your boss might give you a bump if you are loyal to him/her, and that kind of thing pays off in the long run, in terms of keeping well built bridges (it's amazing how often you meet the same people in a given industry no matter how big). The reason I'm commenting about this? > They’re not in the office? You wait a few days until they are. They new job can’t way? Bullshit. Or, if true, it’s a good sign that it’s an organization you don’t want to work for because they don’t care about you. This is the kind of idealistic naiveté, that while nice in principle, doesn't really matter in reality. Show up, do a good job, when the time is right, move on. If you boss isn't there, call them. If they aren't making themselves available to the employees, then I suppose they fall into the category of "places that don't care about you" anyways. Organizations, by definition never care about you and you shouldn't care about them. Care about your work and doing a good job -- that builds self-respect and your reputation. Ask for what you want when you want it and be patient until you get it, don't be a baby or an asshole, be flexible when better ideas than yours come along, that builds respect. Business isn't about feelings, it's about production and making more money than you lay out. If you want feelings, wait 'till quitting time and the after-work meetup at the local happy hour where everybody can commiserate all they want over $3 beers. Think your company cares about you because of the free t-shirts, catered food and free drinks? Are you kidding me? They just know they can squeeze and extra 2-3 hours a day out of your sorry ass at pretty much no extra pay and about $10-15/day. Other than that, the post is pretty spot on.

ericd 17y ago
Your post is probably accurate for most megacorps, but I should hope that employees at a startup or company of less than 10 people don't feel this way about the company. At that level, it's very much a personal relationship rather than a company-employee relationship where loyalty only goes one way. Not all companies are about the creation of profit at any cost... some actually like creating an environment that is pleasant to work in, with free food, etc. for no reason other than making life a bit more enjoyable.
- elblanco 17y ago
  You'd be surprised at how fast that all can go away though. Everybody thinks they are all a bunch of friends, hanging out and building something cool, until they can't make payroll. I've worked at a few startups with that kind of nice "let's make it great here" vibe. And sure enough when the investment money runs out, and it's time to start turning the results from the monthly accounting report black...well the company's loyalty will only stretch about so far.
- kelnos 17y ago
  It's a personal relationship with the people, not with the company. You feel a personal connection with the founders, with the other early employees. You're passionate about the product. You want to build something amazing, and make more money out of it than you put in, and maybe change the world doing so. Your CEO probably cares about you. It probably kills him when the company is running out of money and he has to let you go. But the company doesn't "care." It shows no loyalty to you, and you should feel no loyalty to it. That doesn't mean you can't work for a company and love the work, but it does mean you shouldn't get wrapped up in it to the point where you lose sight of your own interests.
  - ericd 17y ago
    My point was that when the company is the founders, it's not really possible to separate loyalty to the founders and loyalty to the company. At that point, it's very possible that the founders/company will act out of loyalty to you rather than purely out of self-interest, at least until their ability to do so runs out. And I disagree vehemently that one should feel no loyalty to their startup. I know of at least one startup that has run out of money without sacking their employees, and the employees agreed to waive their pay until the startup was able to get its cashflow going again. Had they all immediately bailed as you seem to imply they should have, that startup would be dead now. Instead, I believe its current valuation is around a billion. I would hope my employees would do the same for me.
tallanvor 17y ago
Agreed. Whether you work for a startup or a large corporation, you have to do what's best for yourself. Anyone who kids themselves into thinking that a company is going to put you before the business is an idiot, especially when the boss blogged about laying off almost 10% of his workforce and saying what a smart move it was.

ericd 17y ago

Your post is probably accurate for most megacorps, but I should hope that employees at a startup or company of less than 10 people don't feel this way about the company. At that level, it's very much a personal relationship rather than a company-employee relationship where loyalty only goes one way. Not all companies are about the creation of profit at any cost... some actually like creating an environment that is pleasant to work in, with free food, etc. for no reason other than making life a bit more enjoyable.

elblanco 17y ago
You'd be surprised at how fast that all can go away though. Everybody thinks they are all a bunch of friends, hanging out and building something cool, until they can't make payroll. I've worked at a few startups with that kind of nice "let's make it great here" vibe. And sure enough when the investment money runs out, and it's time to start turning the results from the monthly accounting report black...well the company's loyalty will only stretch about so far.
kelnos 17y ago
It's a personal relationship with the people, not with the company. You feel a personal connection with the founders, with the other early employees. You're passionate about the product. You want to build something amazing, and make more money out of it than you put in, and maybe change the world doing so. Your CEO probably cares about you. It probably kills him when the company is running out of money and he has to let you go. But the company doesn't "care." It shows no loyalty to you, and you should feel no loyalty to it. That doesn't mean you can't work for a company and love the work, but it does mean you shouldn't get wrapped up in it to the point where you lose sight of your own interests.
- ericd 17y ago
  My point was that when the company is the founders, it's not really possible to separate loyalty to the founders and loyalty to the company. At that point, it's very possible that the founders/company will act out of loyalty to you rather than purely out of self-interest, at least until their ability to do so runs out. And I disagree vehemently that one should feel no loyalty to their startup. I know of at least one startup that has run out of money without sacking their employees, and the employees agreed to waive their pay until the startup was able to get its cashflow going again. Had they all immediately bailed as you seem to imply they should have, that startup would be dead now. Instead, I believe its current valuation is around a billion. I would hope my employees would do the same for me.

tallanvor 17y ago

Agreed. Whether you work for a startup or a large corporation, you have to do what's best for yourself. Anyone who kids themselves into thinking that a company is going to put you before the business is an idiot, especially when the boss blogged about laying off almost 10% of his workforce and saying what a smart move it was.