No More Gold Watches
When people from my grandfather's generation retired after being
with a company for decades they got gold watches. Gold watches
no longer exist as far as companies are concerned. Now companies
give out pink slips (a.k.a. their walking papers) after 25 years
of service. We are living in a different world but it is
humorous to me in a way.
Companies no longer have loyalty to those employees that have
been loyal to them for years and years of service. When it is
clear that companies no longer care about their employees in
most cases, it is funny to me when the management of a company
gets upset when the employees are no longer loyal to them
either. They still expect the employees to be loyal without
giving it in return. The same applies for customers. They get
upset when a customer of 25 years leaves for a company just
because of a cheaper price.
I have said in a previous article that I work for Liberty
Mutual Insurance. Since I have gotten in the department I am in
now, which is Personal Sales, I have seen some very good
employees either forced out the door or forced into taking
demotions. The new management comes in and decides they want
their own people in place. They either eliminate positions to
get some people out the door or they just "performance manage"
them out the door.
I am not singling out Liberty Mutual by any means. In fact, I
suspect other companies are even worse because Liberty has
historically been a very conservative company. Other more
aggressive companies are probably laying even more people off,
or pushing more people out the doors so they can replace them
with "their" people who are younger and cheaper.
I am also not saying that some of the older people do not
deserve to move on. Some people I have managed over the last
year and a half in this department just do not want to be here
and they make it obvious. They continue to do things the way
they have always done it. They make little effort to learn new
technologies and procedures to keep up with the changing
business world and customer's demands. These people are not the
ones I am referring to in this article. I am referring to the
people who are on top of their game, still making a significant
contribution to the company and they are just forced out because
management does not like them.
I think Liberty Mutual is one of the last companies that still
has a large population of employees who have worked their whole
career for the company. I also think this is not going to be the
case five or ten years down the road. It is a shame that
business has become so ruthless and does not care about the
employees any longer.