Is loyalty of any importance to an employer any more? Or is today's CEO corporate driven, "market" forces make loyalty obsolete? Edit: Option #1 should be a "No".
Did you read your poll before you posted it? Given the question, the last two answers make no sense. "Is loyalty a thing of the past?" "Absolutely ... it is imperative." So the answer is that it is imperative that loyalty be a thing of the past? Proofreading, now that's imperative if you want to get your point across.
No surprise here. Employers will take everything they can get from employees, including loyalty. They want productivity that turns directly into profit more than anything else. But if they can get that and loyalty while not giving raises that keep an employee's pay up with inflation, then that is a big win-win for the employer. Employees realize all of this and that is why hardly any worker in any career feels any loyalty to any company anymore. They know that no matter how hard they work or how loyal they are, they will be thrown out like garbage the first time there is even a slight dip in profits.
Lots of CEO's think only about moneymaking ( for themselves!) , they have neither values nor moral, today here, tomorrow there. They are loyal only to one: their private bank account. Only a True Christian with Traditional Values can still be a good and loyal CEO.
I don't think loyalty is a factor at all. On either end. They will expect you not to give up company secrets, but not for loyalty purposes, for contract purposes. I would like to say though, I always thought it funny an employer can drop an employee on a split seconds notice, yet, if you quit without a 2 week notice, they act as if you were guilty of some great injustice. As if they were doing you a favor. Please. Either a favor is being done both ways, or it is just a contract to be broken at anytime, by either party.
CEO's are recruited based upon what they did for the last company, and corporate espionage at their level is an extremely dangerous game for someone to be playing who is already guaranteed a large chunk of profits. Intellectual theft in China is far worse a situation than any amount of corporate espionage over the years, and still the jobs stay there. Obviously with patent laws companies aren't too worried about it.
Are you asking if employeers value loyalty in their employees? If so than the answer is yes, though to varying degrees. There is always some cost associated with hiring and training a new employee, and shifting workloads if one quits. Hence everything you hear about age discrimination where employers worry the candidate will retire in a few years. This is also where some of the "overqualified" issue comes from. They figure you're going to ditch them as soon as something better comes along. Generally anything that would make someone suspicious you might quit on them is going to hurt your resume. The degree to which this matters however varies wildly. Burger flippers not so much, staff engineers much moreso. Then there is the seperate issue of loyalty to the employer specifically as opposed to just the company. That can be highly valued, and highly rewarded (i.e. cronyism).
As known China has flushed all patents laws down the toilet. And what's about those CEOs who can get a little bit more larger chunks by competitors? My point is easy: only Conservative True Christians with Traditional Values can became good CEOs. Plain and simple.
Real markets are west, primarily America. Products of stolen patents can't be sold there, other than in the form of knock offs. When you already produce the crappiest products in intended form, the knockoffs are mostly bootlegged and a joke. Therefore, what's left of theft is only worrisome as for military, as selling to 3rd world markets very rarely turns drastic profit unless your product is opium.
It actually isn't a two way street. That's what I'm trying to establish. It's all about the profit. Loyalty has no profit for the employer, so it's no longer a mutual understanding between employee/employer (like in the old days, where loyalty actually meant something....before the current corporate "grab all you can take as fast as you can take it and screw everything else") mode of operation that pollutes everything today. So, if loyalty isn't an issue, and profit is the only issue, what is the motivation for any employee to WANT to do a good job? Since the employee will most likely be screwed out of any possible future at some point (because killing retirements/benefits/wages is more "profitable" and destined for the chopping block...why should the employee bother? ) You see...loyalty ISN'T actually a two way street. It's a one way street, called "profit", and only profit. (and then MORE of it). Do you not see the problem with this business mentality?
If you think this is currently unique, you need to pick up a few history books. Whoever has been in charge has always been that way, which is why so many people wanted to move here for the past few hundred years, so they could be the boss.
Loyalty is a two way street. If your employer is not going to be loyal to their employees, and views them as disposable cogs in their machine, then the employee owes no loyalty to the employer beyond the next paycheck.
\ Not really true, there was a period in American history where many corporations were loyal to their employees, companies such as Ford, DuPont, Hurcules, Hewlett Packard, and many others. They did tend to be paternalistic, but they took care of their employees and their families. They practiced such virtues as giving their workers at least a living wage, annual raises (depending on profit's), promoting from within, decent vacation time and they made sure their employees took that vacation, and a lifelong career so long as you did your job competently. That period existed between 1935 and about 1980 and saw the rise of the largest middle class in history.
Exactly...and that period is dead and gone, having been replaced by the corporate model of profit, profit, and more profit. Loyalty is too expensive and a thing of the past. It's all about hacking for profit, and then hacking for more. Loyalty isn't required, nor to be expected on either end. Here today...gone tomorrow. New CEO, and more hacks. That's all it's about today. Tomorrow has been swallowed by greed, and if you're not at the top of the ladder.....oh well. Tough cookies.
Employees are one of the tools a business uses to achieve the objectives of that business. How each employee fit into and contributed to that plan achievement is what was, is and will be important to the employer. Doesn't matter if its the floor sweeper or the CEO.
