Your Employer Is Not Loyal to You
A recent article in Business Insider, entitled “The end of workplace loyalty,” offers a thoughtful discussion about the changing landscape of employers and employees’ expectations.
Perhaps your grandparent took their first job with the expectation that they’d be there their entire career, then leave with a pension and a gold watch presented at a retirement party. Sadly, that reality is long gone.
Many employers no longer reward longevity or initiative. They demonstrate this in several ways:
- terminating higher-paid employees (sometimes after they trained their less experienced replacements)
- consolidating or outsourcing jobs
- saying they are “eliminating a position” but really just changing the title and a few duties
- cutting benefits and reducing pensions or retirement contributions
- keeping employees below a certain threshold of hours to avoid paying medical benefits
- opposing remote work
- fighting efforts to form unions, which increase job longevity and reduce labor shortages
Employers even penalize employees before they start, by forcing them to sign onerous pre-hire documents, such as:
- agreements to repay training costs (“TRAPS”) or signing bonuses if the employee doesn’t stay for a certain period of time
- non-compete agreements to prevent employees to do the same kind of work for up to two years – even if it is the employer who ends the relationship
In response to this trend, employees are asserting their own bargaining power by quitting jobs at high rates, engaging in so-called “quiet quitting” (doing the bare minimum to get by), or even becoming “overemployed” (secretly working multiple jobs at once).
At Roumel Law, if any of this sounds familiar, we urge employees – or prospective employees concerned about their rights – to get confidential legal advice before they act. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.