Yes, you read that right: You Don’t Owe Your Employer Loyalty!
There has been lots of discussion over the years about employee loyalty. How can employers retain the loyalty of their employees?
Articles (and employers) usually have a laundry list of ways to retain employee loyalty (show appreciation, provide constructive feedback, fund training and development, free gym membership, etc.)
Always missing from the list is, of course, the most obvious way to increase employee loyalty: increase wages / salaries. But that is a discussion for another post.
Either way, I am here to tell you that you don’t owe your employer loyalty.
I remember way back there was a lot of criticism of the “job hoppers” of the millennial generation.
Now I don’t consider myself a “job hopper” per se. I had three real jobs in my life.
I first worked a part-time job for 3 years. Overlapping that towards the end of year 3, I also worked my first full-time job in fast food for a bit.
Then I got a new job and I have been working there for nearly 6 years now. Aren’t I a good loyal employee? Lol.
But life is the great teacher. Greater than anything learned in the classroom.
Here is why you don’t own your employer loyalty.
1) You Mean Nothing to Your Employer.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again: You mean absolutely nothing to your employer!
You could be a hard-working all-star employee, show up for work and stay late every day, hand in all your assignments on time, a go-getter who takes the very job seriously and gets along great with everyone.
The next thing you know, you’re in the boss’s office being handed your walking papers.
What happened? Your company found a way to save $25 a month extra which means your services are no longer required.
This happens more often than not. Where is the employer’s loyalty?
It doesn’t matter that you have a family to feed or even that you are sick and rely on your employer’s health insurance. Your employer doesn’t care.
Understand your employer has no loyalty to you. And you don’t owe any loyalty to your employer.
2) You Are a Just a Cog in a Machine
You (like me) are nothing more than an easily replaceable cog in a machine.
If you are treated poorly or unfairly, you can complain or threaten to quit all you want. You employer will just replace you with another replaceable cog.
It doesn’t matter how good a worker you are. I watched this happen at all my jobs.
Of all the people I started working with in my bureau 6 years ago, 90% are gone and replaced.
Most of them were great workers and I would estimate two-thirds simply left from being fed up with the place.
This process has accelerated since new management took over two years ago.
When the new executive and staff took over two years ago, many of the old executives, chiefs, deputies, were simply fired, forced into “voluntary retirement”, and a few simply demoted.
These were people with fancy titles; executives, chiefs, deputies, etc., many of which put in 30+ years of their lives to the job. They were simply given the boot.
In the end, despite the fancy high rank job titles, they also were just cogs in the machine, albeit larger cogs with some shine sprayed on them.
That is the risk you take when you climb up someone else’s corporate ladder, you can be kicked off any time. And the rest is history.
Take note, you are replaceable to your employer. Therefore, you need to work towards making your employer replaceable to you!
3) Employee Loyalty As Enslavement
It’s funny, that there are some bosses out there who think just because you get tossed a few bones, you are supposed to be utterly devoted to the point where your whole life should revolve around your job at all times.
Life outside work shouldn’t exit or at least not take any priority.
The executives rarely talk to us underlings, so it is the mid-level bosses we mostly interact with.
Some of the mid-level bosses have an unhealthy devotion to their jobs (as did many of the other bosses who got fired two years prior – and were crushed emotionally by it).
They choose to work many extra hours each day and they find it shocking that the vast majority of us have no such attachment to our job. That we have lives outside our job.
For example, they have gotten mad at quite a few of my coworkers for not doing over-time.
We are not required to do overtime and legally it cannot be forced. Furthermore, over-time pay isn’t great (and often unpaid). I almost never do overtime.
But it’s funny, when they ask us to stay late or come in early and then get mad when we don’t want to or simply have other things to do.
We aren’t at our employer’s beck and call (certainly not with our current pay rates).
A huge part of the problem is that these types have been in the office too long.
These are baby boomers whose have worked in the office for decades. There entire identity is their job. They know nothing else.
So used to being a cog, they can’t imagine anything else.
They don’t realize that no matter how devoted to their job they are, in the end, they are still replaceable cogs toiling their lives away in the rat race.
Put Yourself First, Not Your Employer
And there is why you don’t owe your employer loyalty.
You mean nothing to your employer and you’re a replaceable cog.
(Are there some exceptions? Yes, but they are very rare and count yourself very lucky if you landed a job with one)
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t be a good worker or proud of the titles you achieve. However, it does mean you need to always be prepared to move on.
No matter how loyal or hardworking you are as an employee, you can always be let go.
You should not define yourself by your job, nor let your job define you. Any time your job can be lost, no matter how big a title you have.
Furthermore, if a better opportunity comes along, you should take it rather than stay at an old job (but what about loyalty!?).
Always put yourself first, not your employer.
I show up to work on time (in fact, I have never been late), I do my job well (I’ve gotten great evaluations), I get paid for it, and then I go home.
Very simple. In and out with no attachment. Nothing extra without being paid.
Conclusion
Time is precious and we only have a limited amount in our lives.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend my whole life or any extra time working a 9-5.
The goal is to break free of the rat race. Financial independence and freedom!
To that end, I am saving over half my monthly income and building up my investments in dividend growth stocks.
I’ve built a six-figure portfolio that generates a yearly average of over $1,000 per month in dividend income! That is passive income that I earn while I sleep!
If you are interested in beginning your own journey into dividend growth investing, personal finance, and financial freedom, check out my Getting Started page.
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So, what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments below!
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