Remember job loyalty?

I remember when I first started in the job market, one thing people would always say is to stick with one job for a few years. If you switch jobs to often, companies will consider you a "job hopper," i.e. you don't have sufficient job loyalty.

A friend of mine just applied for an internal job transfer about three weeks ago—they chose him for the position, then laid the position off while he was still in his two weeks notice at his old position. The only people who knew he’d gotten the new job were his current boss and prospective boss. Consequently, he’s just keeping his old position as if nothing had happened. So the only thing that was influenced by the whole process was the dropping of his morale.

Sadly, that’s not the first time I’ve heard of that happening (and not just at my company). Another friend of mine had a stable job once, then was hired into a better job somewhere else, and was laid off within weeks of taking the new job. They still hadn’t filled her old position, but she had officially left the company. She ended up having to apply for her old job back, just a week after leaving. She got it back, but what a humiliating experience.

This is why you never see “job loyalty” in this day and age. It’s an unrequited relationship. Maybe if all these companies that are going under really want to blame the job hoppers, or unions, or employees in general for all their problems, they should treat their employees with respect to begin with, and give employees a reason to help the company out.

My job loyalty reaches as far as my next paycheck, and it's not because I don't care. It's because I do care, and because I pay attention to how I'm treated as an employee. Once in a while there's a job out there where somebody goes to work and provides a service, and their employer compensates them for their time. They don't necessarily "love what they do," they just do it and do it well so they can be appreciated. The more common relationship, though, is that a company needs an ass in the chair so they can convincingly charge their clients as much as they do, and they're bribing me not to vacate that chair while anyone is watching.