Your Employer Owes You Nothing

By Mark Shead

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Your Employer Owes You Nothing
By Mark Shead 23 Comments

I see many people working a normal job with the idea that if they work hard they will be rewarded for their good service. That isn’t the way it works. Your employer owes you nothing. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked at the job or how loyal you’ve been. In the end, your years of service aren’t going to turn into some valuable investment that you can cash in.

Just the other day, a friend of mine was let go (along with all the other employees) at a business where he had been working for the past several years. The sad part is that, he had several offers over the past few months for jobs that he really wanted to take, but he decided to stay out of loyalty to his current company. His commitment to his employer turned out to be detrimental.

I have seen people invest their best work years at a company that suddenly decided to shut down. I’ve seen others invest 10 years helping a non-profit grow through very tough times while taking a very low salary only to be ousted by management once their 10 years of hard work were starting to pay off.

My point is this. You need to invest in something that you control if you want to benefit from the cumulative benefit of your years of work. Many people think that starting their own business is risky. It is true that many businesses fail. However, working for someone else’s business as an employee isn’t any safer. It just means you have less control over your future.

Originally published July 26, 2007.

http://www.productivity501.com/your-employer-owes-you-nothing/224/

Interesting perspective...

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5 replies (most recent on top)

Very true. Can’t plan on staying in a job much more than 5 years these days. Important to consider if you have kids in school. You will need to disrupt them to move to Savannah for GAC, you will disrupt them when you get dumped. Worst mistake of my life. Should have stayed where there were other job possibilities than this backwater. Made that super clear on my GlassDoor review. Need to put your family first, not a fickle employer

Very few companies offer pensions anymore. My old company stopped paying into theirs in 2008. I have a buddy who worked for Lucent (or whatever it's called now) and they stopped paying into their pension around the same time.

The "stay at one job for your entire career" thing ended in the 80s.

Counter productive post.

Spot on. I became skeptical when the pension was no longer offered. Then the pension was frozen and capped. Promotions were only offered a couple times a year at most...

The career and job landscape is changing. No longer do people stay in the same company, job or industry for the entirety of their working years. Do not build your career around a single company or job. Unless you must or want to stay in the area feel empowered to pursue other opportunities. Do not give the time and energy that you should be spending with your friends, family and on yourself to a company or job.

Why would somebody enter an excerpt like this? It sounds like the dialogue of our favorite, basement dwelling uncle. Good ol' uncle jb. Medicinal weed much?

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Your Employer Owes You Nothing

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