Source: Thinkstock
The company’s bottom line will trump avoiding layoffs, every time
As the Lifehacker article points out, human resources personnel are there to protect the company. When that is at odds with your well-being, you’re likely to be on your own. This basic life lesson is most clearly showcased in the case of layoffs, when the company’s bottom line is always chief over the loyalty to employees. The human resources staff might even like you, but it’s not going to protect you from a pink slip in the case of company emergencies.
It’s perhaps a pessimistic view, but a company is loyal to no one but itself, especially when it’s public and there are investors and a board of directors holding the reins. It’s part of why companies in bankruptcy like RadioShack have no loyalty to their customers, and it’s why the loyalty also fades for employees. They have to answer to investors.
When trouble really looms, as it did in the recession, layoffs are commonplace. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total number of significant layoff events (which are classified as 50 or more unemployment claims from one company in a 5-week period) happened in February and March of 2009, with 3,079 and 3,022 events respectively. In just those two months, almost 600,000 Americans lost their jobs in the blink of an eye.
The bureau ironically stopped keeping tabs on layoff events during the 2013 sequestration, when the government mandated the bureau’s $30 million in budget cuts. But based on data from 2013 and before, any given month can yield more than 1,000 layoff events across the country, with more than 100,000 people affected each time. Not only are millennials used to this job landscape, but many of them were brought up in it. The center of the age group was looking for jobs just as the recession hit, and the difficulty of the job search paired with the uncertainty of job security is a familiar concept.
At some point, millennials are going to grow up. They’ll start caring about stability for the sake of their families, and they’ll make decisions that likely look more and more like that of their parents. Isn’t that the circle of life, anyway? But with every generation comes a few changes. What makes millennials look “reckless” or disloyal now might actually be the key to their success, especially because corporations are never going to be their friend, no matter the generations of change.
Follow Nikelle on Twitter @Nikelle_CS
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SOURCE: The Cheat Sheet » The Cheat Sheet – Read entire story here.
