The New Stability

J. Kevin Tumlinson

It seems like I'm always starting over. Every few years, even when I think things have leveled out and settled down, something comes along that shakes everything up, gets me moving in a completely different direction. You never know when you're going to lose a job, meet that special someone, have a kid, buy the right lottery ticket - heck, maybe all of that at once! But the point is you never know when things are just going to out and out change.

I used to hate change. I guess, in a lot of ways, I still do. It's aggravating to have to look for a new job or shift your schedule around. You feel unbalanced for a time. You feel like you could tip over at any minute. But you don't. You muddle through. You make the change and the world doesn't crash down around you.

In the job market, being flexible and having the ability to improvise have become the best skills you could possibly have. With the speed at which technology and software advances, being able to pick it up quickly is a valuable asset. If a department closes or budget constraints cause your particular job with a company to become defunct, your flexibility and adaptation skills may be all you have to keep the ol' income flowing.

Actually, the sad fact is that if you want any sort of advancement in today's job market you have to be willing to change jobs. The days of sticking with a company for forty or fifty years are gone. Forget trying to advance in ranks or build a nice retirement package. Chances are the company you work for won't be there in a decade, or will make massive cutbacks to personnel. Or maybe they'll just pull an Enron and lie to you outright, taking your lifesavings with them when they fold.

So how do you get ahead in today's society? Obviously loyalty to a company is on the outs when the company provides you with no assurances for stability. So to get that stability, to get ahead, you have to change. Need more pay and better benefits? What's easier - convincing the company that you already work for that you need more or just moving to a company that already offers it?

I'm aware of how this all sounds. Is there no loyalty in today's job market? Surely employers are looking for that, right? Surely they would want employees who happily stay at their stations, doing their jobs, fulfilling the goals of the company.

The trouble is that the companies who cry out that there's no loyalty are often the very same bunch that is willing to stick it to the employees to make a buck. What happens to the employees when the company sells to an outside buyer that just wants to tear down he building and put up a shopping center? Is the company being loyal to its employees when it files for bankruptcy with no advanced warning? Or lies to its employees about company earnings? Or cuts costs by eliminating jobs, cutting salaries or taking away benefits?

Loyalty is a two way street, and there shouldn't be any stop lights.

I agree that there should be a modicum of loyalty to whomever you work for. But just like any relationship, trust and loyalty take time to develop. And it's mutual. You can't go in expecting to be made Vice President in one week, but neither can your employer expect you to sign a life-time contract. The kind of loyalty and mutual benefit that employers and employees want comes with time and effort on the part of both.

Until everyone, including big business, agrees on these terms, the only true stability today comes from your ability to change.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is a writer and a schoolteacher living in Lake Jackson, TX. He can always use spare change.