The good old days of long term employment culture
- This topic has 8 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I worked for an international company where everyone introduced themselves with their name followed by how many years they worked at the company. 0-10 years were new and the 20-40 year people were respected. Does this even exist anymore? Many people jump jobs every 2 years. How much loyalty is in anyone’s culture now? Is this short-sighted versus long-term or just a phase that has ended?
I worked mainly for privately held companies where you would still find a significant portion of the employee being in the company more than 20 years. Although I would value their knowledge of the unwritten rules and ability to get things done, I must say that a lot of them would develop a sweet-bitter attitude over the years, with a tendency to look at the past with excessive nostalgia. I think it is perfectly fine to be loyal to your company while still having changes in your career on a periodic basis. Each time you move, it creates a bit of chaos that would ultimately benefit to yourself as well as your prior employer. Life is about changes… but this is just my personal feeling towards changes in life !
I think there is something positive for both options – long term or frequent change. Being in the same company for many years I now clearly see the effects: my knowledge is considered in many projects and I am very often to go-to person. At the same time I can also see the benefits of bringing in people from other companies – new ideas, new points of view. Therefore I think for a company it is good to have a healthy mix of both.
Your personal choice to switch should, from my point o view, not be dependent on trends. If you like your job, your contribution is valued, you have development opportunities, challenges, nice colleagues and a nice boss – why should you change!
I think it’s a two-way street – employee loyalty is declining and in response to how companies treat/value their employees. In the past, there was this concept of “iron rice bowl” where a company would take care of employees for life, guaranteeing job security and promotion from within the ranks. Unfortunately these days HR tends to be transactional where employees can be easily replaced, including management roles where friends or connections are parachuted in, rather than promoting from within.
I have worked for companies where the management and HR philosophy is “No one is irreplaceable”. On the one hand, it drives performance and ensures that everyone delivers and are on their toes. On the other hand, it does not promote a culture of sharing as employees try to horde knowledge in order to stay relevant.
The organisation will attract the people who has similar beliefs, values and principles aligned to the organisations.
If the organisation is loyal to its employees, over time it will accumulate employees that are loyal to it.
If an organisation doesn’t prioritise loyalty and prioritise performance, over time it will have high turnover and attract high performers who expect high pay for the high performance stress and job uncertainty.It goes both ways 😉
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
