Is it true Gen X'ers have no loyalty to businesses and vice-versa?

[Deja Q]

Doing a job, milking it for the money, then moving on?

Quite a lovely generalization I heard today, and disagree with because I am loyal to my employer. And I'm an X'er.

[JVS]

1. The company is not blood, fuck them!

[Radical Activist]

2. No one should be loyal to a corporate employer.

I would say it is true of Gen X-ers. We grew up seeing retirees get screwed on their pensions by companies that went bankrupt, and millions of jobs outsourced. Anyone should get the message that corporations don't feel loyalty to their workers. Only a sucker would be loyal to a company that isn't going to be loyal back in today's economy.
A small business owned by someone you know is another story though.

[Deja Q]

3. Thank you!

That was the missing context; when I heard the phrase today I got confused...

We should make more small businesses...

[Radical Activist]

19. I'm all for

a smaller business economy.

[seaglass]

23. Maybe I'm having a bad experience but I'm working for a small

business and I'd much rather be working for a large company. More benefits, more money, more professionalism, more opportunity, more job satisfaction, more flexibility - for me, the pluses of working for a large company far outweigh those of a small one.

[MountainLaurel]

6. You've got it, RA

After seeing contracts regarding pensions and health insurance broken so that CEOs can make a few more million a month, watching professional positions downgraded but not the job duties, seeing people laid off two months before they could collect their retirement, what reason do we have to be "loyal"?

[idgiehkt]

8. right on.

what we grew up seeing happen to our parents is why, we know better. There is no 'secure job' anymore, mainly because of competition from China, there are very few pensions to be had. There is no reason whatsoever to be 'loyal' in any sense to an employer. It kind of suggests some kind of emotionalism that shouldn't be in a business relationship in the first place.

[ghostsofgiants]

12. Contract work is much more prevalent now in a non-outsourcing context also.

The idea of having one job for your entire life is essentially non-existent these days because it's much more cost effective for companies to use contract work whereby they aren't obligated to employ a person beyond the end of that contract nor are they obligated to offer any kind of benefits. Gen X seems to be sort of a transitional period for this. Like Hypno said, he's a loyal employee, but some Gen Xers don't feel that way and don't expect to be in the same job forever. In my generation, like I said, the notion is almost non-existent.

[idgiehkt]

16. amen

I have run into this 'contract' deal quite a few times myself. It's a cop-out, I think. When I interviewed with Atlanta Bread Company they hired me but it was some kind of weird deal where they contacted with an agency for their employees and there were no benefits at all. Totally and completely bogus

[PVnRT]

27. Damn straight

If they can fire me at any time for any reason, why the fuck should I be loyal at all?

[Chan790]

4. I'd be loyal to mine if

they didn't insist on paying me half the going rate for a barista.

I make 7.62/hr., can only work 25 hours a week, and get tips I have to split with every schmoe in the building, standard wage is almost $15/hr. + tips and full time.

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. At my first job I was loyal...

Then I became a manager and read a few manuals. After learning about "employment at will" I stopped giving a fuck about anyone that employs me. If they can fire me whenever they want, I will walk the fuck out whenever I want.

[asthmaticeog]

7. Been at my job since Feb of '99.

Generalizations are for shit. And it was probably just some greedy, self-absorbed jagoff baby boomer anyway.

[Left Is Write]

9. No, I don't think any all or nothing statements are true. However -

I don't think people do have the loyalty to employers they once had. On the other hand, it's unlikely that most businesses do much to earn the employee loyalty of the old days.

[KitchenWitch]

10. I think it started with the companies no longer being loyal to the employees

and I am a boomer.

[JanMichael]

11. It's somewhat true as most of us came of age during the...

...destruction of the labor movement and the beginning of wage depressing globalisation.

Basically employers, well most anyway not all, see us as cannon fodder and we see them as assholes.

Of course my situation is different due to my line of work but the growing service industry is cutthroat. Thus the attitudes harden on both sides of the labor v. boss battlefield.

[LostInAnomie]

13. Why would anyone be loyal to a corporation when they view employees as commodities?

Their purpose is to use you for all they can, then throw you away. Why stick around to let them do it?

[Deja Q]

14. So let's all quit tomorrow.

:party:

Why stick around? Anything we get later on probably wouldn't pay nearly as well...

[LostInAnomie]

17. Unless you are trading up.

If you are just moving to the same job, what's the point? A couple years experience, a good resume, and a reference can go pretty far towards getting a new job with a better position.

You have to at least keep your options open. The sooner employers get the idea that you aren't going anywhere the sooner they can start fucking you over.

Sometimes a call from another perspective employer can scare you boss into treating you a little better.

[seaglass]

24. I have no loyalty but disagree with your characterization. The

relationship between a company and an employee is a trade relationship - money for labor.

[HoneyBee]

15. I love my job

and my employer and I am loyal. They are loyal to me as well. It's not perfect, but I am lucky to be quite happy. I think that they are as well. I haven't always loved previous jobs, and they haven't always loved me. But, I found a home 4 years ago.

-An "Xer"

[La Lioness Priyanka]

18. anyone who has survived or witnesses a downsizing loses loyalty to their employers

mostly because they know that should the bottom line be affected, employers have no loyalty to them.

the culture of loyalty is lost because of the way corporations have laid people off

[Evoman]

20. We'll be loyal to them, as soon as they stop fucking us over.

Loyalty is for chumps.

[Zookeeper]

21. I'm not a Gen X'er, but...

I've worked in enough corporate jobs to know never to be fooled by their, "We're a family!" b.s.

It's business.

[donheld]

22. Believe me, Businesses have no loyalty for Gen X or

any other generation. They foster everything but loyalty.

[gr8dane_daddy]

25. Depends on the company...

some companies treat their employees fairly....high loyalty i.e. Google

some treat their employees unfairly....low loyalty i.e. my current gig, company to remain nameless

[China_cat]

26. Gen Xers are the first ones in a long, long time not to have

a business be loyal to them as employees. Being loyal to that type of business is just masochism.

[Bassic]

28. It is generally true

The incessant downzising and re-structuring that cause people to lose their jobs so that companies won't see their profit growth decrease has done a lot to create that situation. It's hard to be loyal when you know that at any time you might be out on the streets just because the share holders think they're not making quite as much money as they could.