What About Employer Loyalty?

There was a time when employee loyalty was expected. People went to school and then went off to work for an employer where they would stay through the duration of their working lives. Promotion within the organization was the only movement most people looked for. Now people are seeing more of a difference. It’s not that these organizational values didn’t exist in the days where you worked 50 years for a company and then got sent off with a gold watch. There is one thing that is missing from most employers’ benefits packages now- the pension plan that encouraged that employee loyalty. In addition to that, employees can be loyal to their employers, to find in many cases, that their loyalty is not reciprocated. So what’s the hold now?

Many people, especially those in the helping professions stay for loyalty to the clients, fear of going out and starting in a new environment, the comfort of complacency and numerous other reasons that do not provide opportunities for them.

Because so many organizations are more openly bottom line focus, one can’t hinge their future on an organization being there for them. Let’s face it, when it become more beneficial to the organization, every employee, no matter how valuable they seem at the moment is expandable. Loyalty to the organization is not necessarily going to advance your career any more than finding the right opportunity elsewhere. Passing up on other opportunities however will surely hold you back with no guarantee that another will be available when you are ready to take that leap.

Staying for the sake of clients as, noble as it may sound is also not a good enough reason either. Some professional relationships will have planned termination while others will mature to that point. Clients are supposed to grow and evolved, meaning that at some point the clients may no longer need your services and move on. In most cases, you will have new clients as other clients exit, so the idea that you don’t want to leave clients who are used to you will always be there. Unless you phase out your clientele until the last one exits- despite the financial changes that brings. So what do you do then?

You have to realize that no matter what your profession is there were multiple reasons that you entered the field. Working with your clients or projects was only a part of the reason you chose your career. There is the aspect of personal fulfillment, as well as the need for a career that will serve to meet other needs, such as financial. When you tie yourself to an organization for whatever reason other than your meeting needs, then you are denying yourself the opportunity to have your needs even more greatly met elsewhere.

As a therapist I encountered this issue in me as well as peers- When you get to that point where you are ready to move on the next step of your career or just away from your current position but you have clients who are making such great progress. You have to have to be able to make decisions based on a systems perspective. That was the reason on instituted Employer Performance Assessment that is completed at three, six and twelve months into a position and annually afterwards. Just like the employee assessments that are administered for the employer to determine if an employee should be retained, as the employee we are entitled to this same opportunity. Just as after employee evaluations sometimes there are performance improvements that the employee has to make to better meet organizational standards or expectations, I had the same requirement for my Employer Performance Assessment.

How did this work? Around the time of each assessment period, say around 90 at the beginning, I sat down and completed the assessment just like a supervisor does for employees. I was doing this based on my knowledge and experience with the organization in the time since the last assessment.  Once the assessment was completed, I looked at any items that did not receive full marks to determine if there was a way to get to full marks within an acceptable period. Sometimes it was just things that I needed to or rework, and at times I needed to reach out to supervisors for assistance in making the desired changes.

In as much as you have obligations to yours employer, you should also have expectations them as well. Just as they would not keep you around when you are not meeting their standards, you also have that same option. Now this does not mean that you decide that the organization is not meeting your needs so you up and quit. What this means is that when you determine that your needs are not being met by your employers then you should be implementing a plan to get these needs met where with your current or a new employer…

We invest too much of ourselves in our work for it to be anything but satisfying. You spend about half, sometimes more of your waking hours at work or doing something related to work. Leisure time and activities have to be scheduled around work. So it you are investing so much of you in something then it should be satisfying in every way that you desire. When that fair exchange is not happening then you owe it to yourself and the clients that you serve to make a change happen. Otherwise your investment in the services you provide can suffer thus affecting your clients.

There many reasons to stay but often the ultimate question is- does the position continue to meet the needs that you wanted met when you accepted your position and when you entered your field. If the answer to either question is no then you should be looking for opportunities that will allow you to answer yes to both.