The Moral of the Moment: Organizational Loyalty… For Now

EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE NOV.2009

PERSPECTIVE

The Moral of the Moment: Organizational Loyalty… For Now

-- Rob Jolles

As a child I grew up with a father who worked hard for a company he loved. It was like witnessing a successful marriage. There were days I heard my father speak of the company he worked for with pride and respect. There were also days I heard him speak of his frustrations, and disappointments as well. However, in forty years I never heard him speak about leaving. He was loyal to the company, and the company was loyal to him. When he finally retired he received a party, and handshake, and a gold watch. He never worked for another company again.

When I went to work, I dreamed of a similar marriage that would represent my career, and when I landed a job at Xerox, I thought I found it. A powerful, Fortune 500 company in the US; not only did I find myself employed by a company that I loved working for, the company seemed to love me too. I felt I found the corporate relationship I had been looking for, and the two of us settled in for a nice affair that lasted over a decade.

I wasn't the only one searching for this mythical corporate marriage. Xerox seemed to attract others who wanted to pursue the gold watch. The company went on for decades without ever laying off a single employee. I did not know one person who even had a resume. It seemed to be a marriage made in heaven. Unfortunately, it all changed in the winter of 1992.

After years of solid corporate earnings, and steady returns on Wall Street, Xerox decided to do something it had never done before. It decided to really get in the good graces of Wall Street, and despite its healthy earnings, began the first of two lay-offs. It was extremely difficult for those who lost their jobs, but at the risk of sounding insensitive, I believe it was even worse for those who were left behind. What had been a wonderful workplace environment became a depressing, sad place to work. I did not know one person who did not have a resume.

Rob Jolles The founder and president of Jolles Associates, Inc., Rob Jolles is one of the most sought-after speakers in the country. Author of two Best Selling books, Rob inspires and demonstrates proven repeatable and predictable methods to improving sales-oriented businesses. A 15-year professional speaking veteran, it's not hard to tell why Rob's personal client list reads like a "Who's-Who" of Fortune 500 Companies. Rob provides valuable, experience-based sales training to his clients, in an informative, and enjoyable fashion.

One day I was moping around and my boss called me into his office. He asked me if I was okay, and I told him I was struggling a bit, missing two of my friends that had been laid off. I also told him, "Just like a marriage, there are ups and downs. This is one of those downs I guess."

He looked shocked and proceeded to give me an education I had never received. He said, "Who told you this was a marriage? This is definitely not a marriage. The corporation will take all that it can from you, and pay you for your troubles. When the corporation has taken all it can, it will let you go. However, you have the right to take all you can from the corporation. When you have taken all you can take, you can let the corporation go. There are no hard feelings. It's business."

My concern is that you may be reading this and thinking that I'm a pretty negative person. I can assure you I am not. What my boss did that day was help me wake up to the realities of corporate life. The organizational marriage and the gold watch that went with it is a thing of the past. You can expect loyalty from the organization that you work for, but not at a deep cost to the survival of the organization. On the same token, the organization wants loyalty from you, but not at a deep cost to your personal survival.

The moral of the moment quite simply is that organizations want loyalty, but not at yours or their expense. Loyalty is not defined by how long someone works for an organization, or how much they can endure while there, but rather how fulfilled they are, and how they perform when they are there. Having an up-to-date resume, for example, is not a breach of loyalty, it's an intelligent way to prepare you against the unknown… and coincidently, having one on hand is taught in every business school in the world.