“I have, like, really given my whole energy and life over the last four months to this job, and to be let go for no reason is like a huge slap in the face from a company that I really wanted to believe in,”
First mistake was giving your whole life. Second mistake was believing in a company.
Having survived a layoff like the one they mentioned - people getting random 15 minute meetings, suddenly seeing their accounts decommissioned, etc. - it definitely sucks, and knowing they’ll lay me off like that means I have no reason to have loyalty
I think most people make this mistake when first entering the workforce though, right? I know I did. Now, I get called pessimistic and cynical. But, I’ve got three decades of experience at various levels of company. With all that experience, I’d prefer to call myself a realist.
Recruiters aren’t blind to it either, at least for more senior roles. They stopped talking about the “family” that they are, and how much more “fun” it is to work there. They also stopped asking me why I chose this company, and instead ask me why I chose this role, because they know I don’t give a shit about the company. They cut straight to “here is the pay and benefits, we give extra for this that and that”. It should be like that for all levels, from junior to director.
Yes, it should be. But businesses aren’t people, they don’t have a conscience, they don’t care about their employees. They will use any tool they can to underpay someone, and work that same person harder than the rest of the team paid more. Because, they can.
If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. Even if the legendary Brotherhood existed, as just possibly it might, it was inconceivable that its members could ever assemble in larger numbers than twos and threes. Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflexion of the voice, at the most, an occasional whispered word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength. would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? And yet-!
Millennial / Gen X cusp here. I feel like this really started with my generation. Many people no longer look for a job, they look for a job that allows them to make the world a slightly better place. Many of us have had that drilled into our heads from childhood.
Companies know this, so that’s what they sell when they’re hiring. And when you combine that with the cognitive bias for people wanting to do good through their work, this is the result.
This is effectively the only tool we will ever have against them, and we should use it before too much of the labor force is converted and automated, and the remaining employed shut up out of fear.
A company like Microsoft worth 3 trillion dollars (with a T), who spends billions to acquire another business in a strategic move, should not be allowed to dump the burden on the thousands of people they let go afterwards, just so the books look good.
They pull billions out of the company in profit, and then claim the company is broke and needs to distribute some losses socially. It’s completely insane that we just allow this to happen in mass. I’m lucky I can choose my companies and I don’t touch the big big corporations so it doesn’t affect me, but we need to do something collectively fast.
I worked for them in a division that was very customer facing. We got told over and over things we needed to improve the experience weren’t in the budget. I always vaguely waved my hands in the air with a “look at the piles of money” face.
I worked at Disney+ in IT for 5 years, they gave me a yearly incentive to stay with them, bonuses, and my 5 years of service pin… and then laid me off a month later.
First mistake was giving your whole life. Second mistake was believing in a company.
Having survived a layoff like the one they mentioned - people getting random 15 minute meetings, suddenly seeing their accounts decommissioned, etc. - it definitely sucks, and knowing they’ll lay me off like that means I have no reason to have loyalty
I think most people make this mistake when first entering the workforce though, right? I know I did. Now, I get called pessimistic and cynical. But, I’ve got three decades of experience at various levels of company. With all that experience, I’d prefer to call myself a realist.
Recruiters aren’t blind to it either, at least for more senior roles. They stopped talking about the “family” that they are, and how much more “fun” it is to work there. They also stopped asking me why I chose this company, and instead ask me why I chose this role, because they know I don’t give a shit about the company. They cut straight to “here is the pay and benefits, we give extra for this that and that”. It should be like that for all levels, from junior to director.
Yes, it should be. But businesses aren’t people, they don’t have a conscience, they don’t care about their employees. They will use any tool they can to underpay someone, and work that same person harder than the rest of the team paid more. Because, they can.
Millennial / Gen X cusp here. I feel like this really started with my generation. Many people no longer look for a job, they look for a job that allows them to make the world a slightly better place. Many of us have had that drilled into our heads from childhood.
Companies know this, so that’s what they sell when they’re hiring. And when you combine that with the cognitive bias for people wanting to do good through their work, this is the result.
Bingo. I mean I accepted pretty early on that A. I wouldn’t enjoy working and B. Someone else is going to make a lot of money off what I do.
As long as I work for an employer that does something or makes something that can be a net positive, I feel like I’ve found something good.
-is the lie I keep telling myself
This is effectively the only tool we will ever have against them, and we should use it before too much of the labor force is converted and automated, and the remaining employed shut up out of fear.
A company like Microsoft worth 3 trillion dollars (with a T), who spends billions to acquire another business in a strategic move, should not be allowed to dump the burden on the thousands of people they let go afterwards, just so the books look good.
They pull billions out of the company in profit, and then claim the company is broke and needs to distribute some losses socially. It’s completely insane that we just allow this to happen in mass. I’m lucky I can choose my companies and I don’t touch the big big corporations so it doesn’t affect me, but we need to do something collectively fast.
I worked for them in a division that was very customer facing. We got told over and over things we needed to improve the experience weren’t in the budget. I always vaguely waved my hands in the air with a “look at the piles of money” face.
I worked at Disney+ in IT for 5 years, they gave me a yearly incentive to stay with them, bonuses, and my 5 years of service pin… and then laid me off a month later.
Bet that person is never loyal again. Live and learn.
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