Let's say right out of college you were given a job, worked hard, and was paid a fair salary. about 5 years into your work, another company comes along, with great benefits, awesome place to work, and offers you 50% more then you are currently making.
Are you going to say "thanks, but I care about the company I work for, and I am going to put there interests ahead of mine"?
While you might have some loyalty for the company you work for, I doubt you would put there interests ahead of yours. If that's the case (and often times it is), why do you think you somehow deserve being treated any different?
Heh. Have actually had that happen in tech. Looked at the company's financials and asked around and decided someone was eventually going to go to jail. Said no. They avoided jail, barely.
Two places I would have had that kind of loyalty for...
One was Texaco of the 80s. Glad I didn't stay, the SEC destroyed the company in the Chevron merger and forced it into the arms of BP, who was a hated player and still maintains the worst safety record of all of them. Texaco was impressive back then. And 20 years meant something. Well, it meant a buy-out for most in the Chevron fiasco, but something.
The second was where I was employee #42 and built the place from the ground up. I was tossed along with 90% of the staff two months after 9/11 and one month after buying my first house. It was a splendid Christmas.
The owners had grand plans, the Red Herring was even printed and distributed, and it was destroyed. Hardest I've ever worked. 70 hour weeks were light ones. It led to absolutely nothing. The owners sold the place for a cool $3.5M each in their pockets, three years later to a competitor. A tiny few key people got some Founder's shares which never amounted to much. Certainly not the years of insanity and long weeks.
I never took a dime of unemployment (probably a mistake in hindsight), was out of work for a year, and never missed a mortgage payment.
So I have very little tolerance for those who can't live up to contracts they signed and need "bail-outs". And even less tolerance for BS businesspeople's false promises and stories of "family".
Cash on the barrel head today, or I walk. Equity is gravy and I never expect it to lead to anything. If it does, I'm mildly surprised.
I also watch the financials like a hawk if the employer is public. My current employer wasn't, but just got bought by a public company. I'm out of practice so I'm going to have to go spend some quality time with the 10Ks now... Ugh.
If you don't think I'm serious about watching closely, I sold PLCM at $32 and quit. Look up the graph.
When the Board ousted Bob for Andy... I saw what was coming. It was also telling that the only guy who survived the upper-level coup was the CFO. That's always a bad sign. Andy pumped and dumped and I was right there with him. Almost to the day he was allowed to by the SEC.
Don't worry, I complain and whine, but also know these are all "First World Problems" and know quite well that compared to most I'm livin' good. I'm not looking for a job at the Alang shipyard yet.
Just clashes with how I was raised. Two grandfathers worked for companies more than 20 years. One went to work for a second company for another 15. That kind of company loyalty and business ethics died in my parent's generation, not mine. I will never respect the stock price artists, though.
(Sorry this is long, you asked. I typed it up over a couple of hours on the iPad while doing other stuff. Had to show a developer how to see whether his code he released to his bosses and the release folks was actually the code put out on the production servers on July 25th. Staging matched Production, so if there's something broken, it's between the Dev machines and the Staging machine. Will dig into that one tomorrow, if they ask for assistance. Kinda stepping on their toes, since they manage that process and those machines. He will probably find it tonight. That would be best. His bosses might wonder why an Infrastructure guy is nosing around their Dev farm. Heh.)
). You reassess your business needs & decide your workforce requirements based on your strategy.
