The financial rewards of loyalty to a company

worker loyality comic

I wanted to share the financial rewards of loyalty to a company I have seen in my career.

In every job that I have worked my reward for being loyal to a company and turning down higher-paying offers has been a 3% raise annually.  In one company I got a $10k bonus due to my contributions. Thats it.

Each year that I stayed with a company, I made less money than the year before due to inflation. I was also saying no to higher-paying jobs to show my loyalty so that I could be promoted to a managerial level. When I became a manager some companies didn’t change my salary due to the job change. Therefore I got to do extra work for the same salary. Quite a deal right?

I have worked for 5 years at one company in my career and then they had to save money and IT was and always is a “cost center”. We are the first to be laid off. When companies talk about loyalty they forget the reality of what employees face. The reality is that in an at-will work environment, there is no loyalty to workers. We see that in the layoffs that are constantly happening.

Now loyalty to a company is earned when that company values and respects the talents and work that a worker does. It isn’t just about salary, but also about helping them have a good quality of life. Many of the coworkers I have known leave a company because they don’t like their boss. To me, a boss is just another challenge that you have to deal with. It doesn’t break or make my desire to stay with a company. However if they actively work against you, it is demoralizing and does make you want to change jobs.

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How does a boss work against you? Be being vague about projects that need to be done, or the importance of work. Not sharing the resources or knowledge needed to do the work. Telling you that it must be done this way, without a discussion of possible better ways to do it.  Knowledge workers like the challenge of figuring things out. That is why we do this. Let us know the problem and resources and we will find a solution that meets your needs.

I am not telling you if you should be loyal or not to a company. Just sharing with you what I have experienced.