The Company Does Not Love You

Emily was talking to a friend on the phone. I could tell the conversation wasn’t the happiest one.

As soon as she hung up, she shook her head. I knew something wasn’t quite right.

It turns out a couple we had recently met and became friends with had gotten some hard news that very day.  After only six months with his new company–who had relocated him at considerable expense–he had been “downsized”.  They had given him the news at the beginning of the workday, offered fifteen minutes to gather up his personal belongings, and had security
escort him out the door.

Two things they didn’t offer were severance pay and “re-relocation” assistance.  Essentially, they had been moved across the country to a brand new city–and left high and dry.

And by the way, this was a health care company. You know, the one niche that’s supposed to be in growth mode for the foreseeable
future.

As infuriating as the story I just shared is, it’s becoming more and more commonplace isn’t it?  So much so that my understanding is that many companies aren’t even bothering to consider job hopping as so much of a negative when interviewing applicants anymore.

After all, how can a company mandate loyalty anymore when they have none?

Granted, some may try to paint that picture for their incoming employees. But the new truth is this:

The company does not love you.

Long gone are the days of 40 year careers spent climbing the corporate ladder for the same company, with a gold watch at the end of the journey.

Entrepreneurship is the new ‘”job security”.  It’s true. Job security is a myth in the corporate world.

Let me confirm something you may already suspect. Working for yourself is actually safer these days in many, many ways.

Here is a small sample of what has happened just within my immediate family:

1) I was laid off from a Fortune 100 company exactly one week after closing a $400 million sale. Despite my efforts, the order came too late to save the product line, which was summarily canceled due to overall lack of interest globally.  I learned months later that they company had actually fulfilled on the contract anyway by partnering with another manufacturer.  Ultimately, they simply (and in my opinion myopically) had opted to fire me rather than pay the commission.

2) My brother was let go by a giant IT company whose CEO once publicly promised never to lay off employees.

3) My sister was a top performing store manager for a national fashion chain, but they closed her location anyway.

4) My brother-in-law was on the fast-track to senior management at a financial firm…until a new VP came in from outside and brought his own people with him.

I can list several other examples from my own experience.   One company made big promises in the course of the interview process, during which I asked all the right questions.  It turned out they bald-face lied to me and the job bore very little resemblance to what I was assured of.  From the moment I moved into my office on day one it was clear I had been given an altogether impossible set of objectives to meet, all while working for a very different boss than I’d been introduced to beforehand.

Another company pronounced me their most ambitious “hunter” in their entire sales organization.  A new national sales VP came in and put everyone on a common quota, including “gatherers” who had long-time large accounts.  Within weeks I had gone from “golden boy” to being threatened with termination in thirty days unless I started producing numbers like the old-timers from a brand new territory.  Given that I was working largely with public sector clients on an eighteen-month sales cycle, there was no way I could accelerate my funnel and they knew it.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been let go on two separate occasions for “not being brown enough”.

Seriously…working for yourself is the new job security.  Having been running X & Y Communications for over twelve years now, this is now officially my longest-tenured job by a factor of over two-to-one.

Nowadays, even stuff that used to be crazy to handle on your own like health insurance, legal considerations, taxes/accounting and the like are now much more streamlined for entrepreneurs thanks to software, web apps and strategic consortia of like-minded folks.

If fear of the unknown has been keeping you from taking the steps necessary to leave the corporate world behind and start writing your own destiny, I encourage you to consider the new paradigm very closely.

The Internet (and social media) in particular has empowered solopreneurs like never before. Best of all, the only boss that has any input on whether you succeed or fail is YOU.

And if you DO succeed? Well, then you won’t mind the boss getting all the credit for your hard work.

So what do you say? Are you up to the challenge and ready to start getting the wheels turning? We’re here to help.

I’m available to you for 1-on-1 consultations by phone or in person if you’re close by:

Whether you are planning your escape from the “deferred life plan”, want to maximize your presence on social media, care to enhance your personal branding power or all of the above…one call
can make a massive impact.