CAREERS NOW 02-07-07

Does Loyalty Still Matter To Companies?

DEAR JOYCE: My wife worked for the same company for 27 years. Her boss said she was no longer as productive as the others in her department and fired her. She was shocked because she had stuck with the company through some of its lean times, including once when she took a pay cut. What ever happened to appreciation by the company of employee loyalty? -F.R.

Last year Fortune senior writer Anne Fisher asked her readers to let her know whether employee loyalty is dead. Hundreds responded and about 85 percent said that loyalty is alive and kicking; some said loyalty has taken a different form and no longer relates to how long a person stays in one place.

Maybe or maybe not. A blanket statement of company appreciation or lack of it for employee loyalty is suspect - how can we know what's in the heart of every boss?

On the flip side of the loyalty coin, read what business icon Jack Welch, a former CEO of GE, and his business journalist wife Suzy, wrote in BusinessWeek Dec. 18 last year. They said that while company loyalty beats hostility or apathy, employees can only stay as long as they're performing:

"(The) concept of employee loyalty as a corporate and societal virtue went out the door with lifetime employment, which had to go when foreign competition arrived."

While other business leaders may not be so candid, when the issue shakes out, it seems clear that employers now value performance over the classic definition of loyalty.

DEAR JOYCE: You sometimes tell readers in trouble to hire a career coach. Great but what if you're on unemployment and can't afford one? - H.S.P.

Go to Plan B: Become your own career coach, advises syndicated columnist Penelope Trunk,

Trunk's fresh-eyed viewpoints are treasures in her Brazen Careerist column that you can read on the Yahoo! Financial Web site. Additionally, check out her addictive blog (penelopetrunk.com) where I found these tips, which I excerpt:

-Talk to an imaginary coach. The result is similar to writing down a problem - more clarity about the problem leads to more clarity about the solution.

- Ask yourself better questions. Ask yourself the most cringe-inducing questions that someone else could ask you. Then answer them. The quality of the questions equals the quality of your conclusions.

- Pretend to give advice to someone else. It's easier to give someone else a hard dose of reality than to give it to ourselves.

-Believe in your ability to make positive change in your life. You can't coach yourself until you believe that you're coachable. As always, believing in yourself is half the battle.

DEAR JOYCE: I am a stay-at-home mom. My husband, a mid level manager, would also like to spend more time at home, which he could do if he telecommuted part of the time. But he says he's afraid to do so - out of sight, out of mind, so to speak. Is he right? - T.C.E.

A lot of people agree with hubby's take on promotions going to those whom management literally sees turning in high production. A new study by Futurestep, a Korn/Ferry International recruiting subsidiary, surveyed more than 1,300 executives from 71 companies to find that 61 percent believe workers who telecommute have a lesser chance of advancing in their career.

Even so, about half of surveyed executives said they would probably or definitely consider a job in which they could telecommute regularly.

I wonder if and how promotion dynamics will change for telecommuters when cheap, no-frills video conferencing becomes widespread.

DEAR JOYCE: I'm considering going back to school to study biology and enter the biotech industry. Does that look promising? - A.S.

If you're not a potentially gifted scientist, I'd add business studies, and consider earning an MBA. The future isn't sparkling for lab techs in American biotech and pharmaceutical companies, as they ship more of their research work to low-wage China, India and Eastern Europe.

Another trend shredding lab jobs: the advent of "virtual" firms, where a skeleton crew focuses on refinements in existing drugs.

Recommendation: Take the time to investigate the entire range of life-science jobs. Start with accessexcellence.org.

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