Corporate loyalty doesn't pay

The office is not your family

In The Office, boss Michael Scott always says that his employees are his family. “The people that you work with are, when you get down to it, your very best friends.” It’s a heartwarming thought— one that works great on a TV comedy. Many bosses and companies have tried to push this idea that your job is an emotional anchor in your life, something you need to care about more than a paycheck. In reality, corporate loyalty is not real. Or at the very least, it doesn’t pay.

Last month, CNBC ran a story that went viral about the decline in corporate loyalty, especially among younger employees. “I don’t think loyalty pays off ... It’s all very transactional. You’re only valuable for as long as they see you as valuable,” 27-year-old Vera Lau told CNBC Make It. “If you don’t learn and you don’t earn, it’s time to go.”

As an older millennial, I was taught to revere my job. The idea of leaving a company, even the worst, before six months was unthinkable.

Nowadays, in most cases, you have to leave in order to rise in both salary and stature.

″[During previous generations], if you stay loyal to an organization ... they’ll take care of you for life. Right now, the retirement benefits are not livable,” Jerome Zapata, human resources director at Kickstart Ventures, said to CNBC.

It’s a balance of looking out for self versus being a flight risk. Companies often bank on that fear to keep you stuck.

I grew up idolizing brands like Def Jam and Atlantic Records, in awe of their history and contributions to hip-hop. It was a dream to get an entry-level job in the music business. When I graduated, the industry was in a dark place trying to figure out its identity and business model post-Napster and file-sharing. What happens when you combine our rose-colored love for the culture and a scarcity mentality? A generation that begged to get our feet in the door and to hold on as long as humanly possible.

We were honored to fetch someone coffee while being screamed at and berated. No pay? Low pay? No problem. Harassment, sexism and racism only makes you stronger! All of those inspirational quotes: Put your head down and do the work. Come early, stay late. Winners never quit. Yeah, we lived it.

Fast forward, many of us have finally realized that the intern-to-CEO dream is a lie. For most people. The exceptions get the headlines. Most employees will not start from the bottom and make it to the top. You’re not going to be Def Jam’s Kevin Liles or Atlantic Records’ Craig Kallman. Look at Nike’s new CEO Elliott Hill. He started as an intern at Nike in 1988 and now he’s the head. He just did it! You probably won’t.

And in the music industry, even the people who did make it, are being laid off now.

I don’t say all of this to bum anyone out. Don’t take down your vision board. It’s perfectly fine to want to work for a company, love your job and stay there over the years. But make sure that the loyalty is reciprocated. In the case of Elliott Hill, Nike promoted him every two years. Clearly, they were investing in him as a long term talent. If your company treats you well, your paycheck keeps getting zeroes added at the end and you are constantly learning and growing— that’s great.

But like a relationship, corporate loyalty is a two-way street.

On The Office, the employees of Dunder Mifflin stayed in their jobs at a failing paper company for nine seasons despite incompetence in leadership, lack of upward mobility and low pay. Great show. In real life, actors Steve Carrell, Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak (who played Michael Scott, Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard) all left to pursue bigger opportunities in Hollywood. One might argue that they had to leave. So consider your current job. Does it satisfy you the way it should? It might be hard to leave but you have to do it.

That’s what she said.