Employee-Company Loyalty

Does such a thing exist nowadays? Most people would say no, and they’d probably be right.

A company’s loyalty to its employees would imply a “No Layoff” policy. IBM was a famous example of this approach, at least until they started laying people off in the ‘90s. AMD is another example of a company that had to eat their words. But nowadays very few companies explicitly tout no layoff policies since they’re so difficult to uphold, especially in this economic climate.
In the absence of a company’s loyalty to its employees, is it reasonable for employees to be loyal to their employer? I think not. Loyalty has to be a two-way street; one-way loyalty is called blind faith.

So as an employee does this give you carte blanche to continuously job hob, renege on job offers, and use offers from other companies to demand raises from your boss? No, this does not justify any of those behaviors. But what it does mean is that you should not let your employer guilt you into staying due to some misplaced sense of company loyalty.

Your employer might pull the “I hired you when no one else would…” line. That only means that the company got you for a bargain, and now they realize your true value in the marketplace.