

Myth: Millennials have no sense of company loyalty - BillyMaize
http://blog.modis.com/employers/millennialmyth3/

======
snoonan
One factor is that the advent of the 401k in the US broke the contract a while
ago. Retirement isn't bound to any one company anymore. This is the first
generation to enter the workforce with bosses that never experienced what its
like to have a pension. All of their seniors are free agents too, and this
does have effects. Loyalty to the worthy manager, yes, but definitely not to
the company as some sort of a long-term benefactor.

------
gamache
Myth: The world needs more articles in which Millenials are explained

Reality: Millenials have been lied to by virtually every authority figure for
every single moment of their entire goddamn lives, and are slightly harder to
bullshit than yesterday's suckers and rubes

------
russelluresti
The concept of loyalty being a one-way thing is fundamentally flawed. If
you're "loyal" to someone or something that isn't loyal back, it's not
loyalty, it's stupidity. Loyalty requires reciprocation.

The reality here is that companies aren't loyal to their employees. If a
company isn't loyal to you, you can't be loyal to it. It's that simple.

~~~
greenyoda
Exactly. Anyone who has ever witnessed 10% of their fellow employees laid off
without notice should realize that they should be looking out for themselves,
not for their employer.

------
AznHisoka
Loyalty to me seems like the prisoner's dilemma. Sure, you both are better off
to each other if you're both loyal (ie I don't look for other jobs, and you
employ me for a long, long period of time), but you're better off just NOT
being loyal because the other party might not be as well.

~~~
invalidOrTaken
Sometimes the prisoner's dilemma can come to a happy conclusion by making it
_not_ the prisoner's dilemma---e.g. constraining the other's choices.
[http://cheaptalk.org/2012/04/20/consider-the-
equilibrium-17/](http://cheaptalk.org/2012/04/20/consider-the-equilibrium-17/)

------
eddieroger
Why shouldn't they be? They had a hard time finding a job in the first place,
and read nothing but stories of how companies are laying people off, starting
at the bottom.

I'm on the border of GenX and Millennial (depending on where you look), and I
would definitely say I feel no corporate loyalty. I worked for a large Fortune
50 retailer during the era of their first layoff, and I felt the blade whiz by
me, knowing full well I could easily have been let go. Likewise, being a tech
worker, I was in a cost-center and not a income earning group, meaning I was
always subject to cost cutting and belt tightening. I felt like a number (even
my network logon was a random string and not my name - admittedly for
security, I get that), and why would a number feel loyalty to a megacorp?

------
grogenaut
All I saw was a bunch of arrows that made no sense. If you're going to put big
attractive attention grabbing images in your article they should probably
explain the point 'cause they're pulling all my attention from the text and
making me spend bring capitol on deciphering them instead of just reading.

------
jpalioto
_Treating Millennials with respect and professional kindness will endear them
to stay by your side and be less likely to jump ship at the drop of a dime._

How is this specific to any generation? Is the implication that there is a
case where it is okay not to treat people with professional kindness and
respect? I don't know who coined the phrase "people quit managers, not
companies" but it has been around for quite some time.

~~~
tekalon
My brother-in-law quit his last place due to unethical (and a few illegal)
practices and general bad work environment. He has had to keep it from his
parents since his father is a big 'no matter what, you stay with your company
FOR LIFE'. He can't understand that there are companies that will not last a
lifetime, not provide retirement or even non functioning work environment.

------
sp332
_True, Millennials are perhaps less enamored with big corporate structure and
traditional career trajectories ... The reality is that Millennials aren’t
married to the corporations they work for_

So how is it "busted"? You just admitted it was all true.

~~~
mikeyouse
Just because I'm not married to someone doesn't mean that I'm not loyal to
them.

I will defend the company I work for from naysayers, work my ass off to make
them more successful, promote their achievements without pause, but that
doesn't mean I'll stay with them forever.

If a substantially better offer comes around that's more in line with my
personal interests and values, of course I'll consider leaving my current
company. Does that make me disloyal?

~~~
sp332
No. But getting bored of a company after a few years and quitting just to do
something you think is exciting makes you unreliable.

~~~
Iftheshoefits
Your comments all assume the companies involved in this relationship are all
rational and good actors, and illustrate the double-standard companies have.
They expect complete loyalty and "reliability" (your definition), but don't
offer employment contracts to reflect this; in fact it's almost universal that
employment "contracts" have an "at-will" clause. To me, that is a statement by
the employer that they aren't interested in a long term relationship, and I
shouldn't expect one.

Not to mention that in companies of any size, the reality is that "the
company" is actually a lot of smaller companies run by a middle-manager who
himself has his own (frequently corporate-political) motives for doing things,
and is fickle.

To act rationally on that premise isn't unreliable; it's self-preservation.

~~~
sp332
You're making the same point I am: the article headline is wrong.

~~~
Iftheshoefits
I think the article headline is spot on. The article itself goes on to
elaborate and say, in different words, that "loyalty" has to be earned (by the
company), and that a person leaving after X years (where X is less than some
arbitrary amount that qualifies a person as "loyal") does not indicate
"disloyalty". Your comment adds an additional subjective term, "reliability".

