And fair treatment. I have some communist countries I could introduce you to.

All politics aside, I just flat disagree. It’s easy for employees to whine about the things they are “owed” by ownership and management. The facts remain as I stated above, objective, reality, there is no loyalty owed from a corporation to an employee or from an employee to a corporation.

You demand x, y, and z treatment from ownership and management of whatever corporation you work for but you’ll be damned if you would ever allow the ownership to force on you the same ultimatums based on some kind of “managerial altruism.” If management were to take the same position toward you/employees, all employees would act the way management/ownership thought they should, have the attitude they thought they should, and would be willing to making one-way sacrifices in the name of strengthening the corporation or improving efficiency or maximizing productivity – no matter what motivates them in their personal lives outside of work or what economic conditions might be effecting the them on the micro level.

You might say: BUT BAMOCK, THEY ALREADY DO TELL US WHAT TO DO AND WHEN TO DO IT, WE HAVE NO CHOICE NOW!!! I will say, yes you do. If your choices are limited they are not limited by ownership/management of your corporation. Maybe your choices are limited by your own financial circumstances, “I have to keep working there because I cannot afford to quit, get a new job, or start a new career!” How, exactly, is that ownership’s fault or problem? Maybe your choices are limited because everyone’s financial circumstances are horrid, IE bad economy. Well then guess what, things are going to get tougher for you at work too, because the economy is “bad” for ownership/management as well.

I’m being too long-winded. The point is this. When you applied for the job where you work, you signed a contract. In that contract you were notified of expectations your employer required you to meet in order for you to keep you job and you notified (or had the chance to notify) your employer on what things you are willing to do to keep your job and what compensation you require to keep doing it. Your employer made a number of promises to you and you made a number of promises to your employer. At no point in that contract did your employer promise to never change payout structures in a bad economy, benefits packages should the company struggle, etc. At no point did you promise not to quit if you won the lottery or to never move away or to never choose to work for a competing company because they offered you higher pay and/or better benefits.

If your employer changes the conditions which were in your initial contract you are free, as all Americans are free, to tell him to “shove it” and go somewhere else. And you just might. Corporate loyalty is an illusion. If you want better benefits, higher pay, better hours… signify that in your contract. Otherwise, find a better job. If you can’t, for whatever reason, then don’t push off your own problems on ownership/management of some corporation to make you feel better.

*Aside – This wasn’t “at you” MRW, just at the argument or position in general.

Thanks for saying that btw ;-)