$200 GIFT FOR 10 YEARS OF LOYALTY
Why job-hopping is a way of life among the young today
Friday • March 7, 2008
"YOUNG people these days have no staying power," my boss lamented
recently. "Job-hopping is a way of life; no one cares about loyalty
anymore."
I can understand his frustration. As a former manager, I had found
it aggravating to have to keep interviewing candidates for the same
post — one year, there were three people doing that job. So much
time and effort was spent training them, and just when they're
finally up to speed, they up and leave.
Long gone are long-service awards. These days, bosses should just
give those long-service watches to anyone who stays more than three
years.
But as an employee, I am more sympathetic with the job-hopper.
That's because I've worked during the days of the Asian financial
crisis and Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and seen how
fickle Singaporean employers could be and how little they treasured
loyalty.
During the Asian financial crisis, I had my pay docked by 20 per
cent. The company vowed to reinstate the pay-cut when the economy
recovered but of course, when the day came, the bosses conveniently
"forgot". It took five long years of service increments to get my
salary up to pre-crisis levels.
I was ready to quit but my dad, who had worked in the same company
for 30 years, advised against it. "Loyalty will pay off," he said,
with the confidence of someone whose company paid for his family's
healthcare, sent him on overseas reward trips and gave his children
scholarships.
So, I hung tight and eventually reached the 10-year mark. When I
finally got the long-service award, I phoned my husband: "Guess
what, I got a $200 voucher."
"Don't get angry, ya," he responded, "but my colleague just got a
$2,500 voucher for working for five years."
Now tell me I owe a firm like that my loyalty. Why should I when it
didn't seem to value me — or, as my husband pointed out, appraised
me at a rate of $20 a year? It would take another 10 years before I
could attain that promised watch — a cheap brand, of course, as an
engraved Rolex would eat into the company's profits.
An article for Harvard Business School's magazine notes: "The
relationship between employers and employees has undergone a
fundamental shift. Today, workers not only don't expect to work for
decades on end for the same company, but they don't want to. They
are largely disillusioned with the very idea of loyalty to
organisations."
It's easy to see why, especially when, at my age, you start hearing
stories of old friends being treated as if they're well past their
use-by date at 40.
A former colleague, an office manager, received three bad
appraisals in a row. She was not "innovative" enough, the bosses
said. After 25 years in the company, she was "stagnating". The poor
woman was a victim of her own success. She had spent those years
perfecting the office system; ask her any logistic question and she
could answer it. Yet, they wanted her to come up with radical ideas
from year to year.
What they didn't understand was that her contribution to the
company was non-quantifiable: She gave the otherwise sterile office
a heart. She was the "office mummy", the familiar face everyone ran
to with his or her troubles. When she left, the place started
falling apart, with almost half the office leaving.
My cousin, Nancy, has been in the same company for 20 years.
Yesterday, I found out she's worried she may lose her job.
At a meeting she wasn't invited to, her boss had said: "What shall
we do with Nancy? She's been here so long she's practically a
dinosaur." Basically, he was looking to hire someone junior who
could do her work for half the pay.
But that's the problem. Everybody is always looking for new blood
for lower pay or new ways to reinvent the wheel.
Think about it: Who ever hires a candidate who, when asked at the
interview: "What would you change if you got the job?", answers:
"Nothing".
So, if bosses don't look after their employees anymore, what's
wrong with employees looking after No 1? Being professional, I will
give my employers what they pay for — my work and expertise but not
my heart.
And if I ever need a watch, this dinosaur will just buy one
herself.
Tabitha Wang's loyalty is now to her husband and cat — and possibly
thrift shops.