Remember, They Don't Care About You

Relationships are cheap at work because interests always trump values

Corporations have odd ways of celebrating.

Like every new year, when they mark the collective success of the prior year by killing the jobs of hundreds or thousands of the employees who created their value.

This year, such celebrations are already in full swing. Amazon, Google, Citigroup, and Universal Music Group are among a couple dozen major employers announcing layoffs. More will come. The four mentioned here combined for nearly $60B profit in their most recent annual reports.

So this proves once again you can work for a company turning huge profits and still get laid off.

Amazon, slashing jobs for the second consecutive year … apparently believes it can shrink its way to growth. This makes no sense.

And what makes even less sense for Amazon and many others on this list is that they are hiring at the same time they are firing.

Companies claim they value employees. But to fire people when the going gets tough proves that’s only true when things are going well, which is to say it isn’t meaningfully true at all.

And to fire people when you’re turning a profit … well, that’s a different level of malfeasance altogether. One illustrating the soullessness of today’s work culture. Luckily we only spend 55-60% of our waking lives working, which we are meant to believe is our privilege.

But reducing jobs while profits pile up is exactly what these guys are doing.

So while I prefer to give advice to organizations and executives, today I am aiming at the individual employee when I encourage you to always bear in mind how little you mean to a corporate employer, and how cheaply they will dispose of you when the time comes.

Don’t be hoodwinked by company value systems. Your salary is on the books as a cost, and you are a liability the instant your job can be done cheaper. Which is the same moment we find out there was no loyalty, no family, and no real belonging.

The point of this is not to decry layoffs per se. Not to bemoan that layoffs are mean or bad or should only be done as a last resort. Those are not novel arguments, though their timeless nature doesn’t invalidate them.

The point is to suggest there is something deeper going on here. Something uglier. There are a few interesting data points leading me to think so.

First is what’s happening at Google, which was for a long time considered the paragon of positive employment culture.

Google’s employees are particularly incensed by this year’s antics, concluding that unnecessary layoffs are just one manifestation of a decline in that culture. They object to the impersonal nature of the cuts and the absence of an internal dialogue with executives. One meme sarcastically captured the mood with “[t]hank you, corporate overlords for our new annual tradition.”

Second, I have noted that companies are investing more in AI while concentrating layoffs into areas where AI is already capable of proxying for human work. The trend seems clear that tech companies are intent on doing just what they’ve been promising not to do, which is to replace human jobs with AI technology. The promise was that humans could instead spend their time doing things machines can’t do. Apparently this includes being unemployed.

I note also that while tens of thousands of workers are being shown the door, recruitment and job listing services are overflowing with open positions at many of the same companies. Recruiters are bemoaning the difficulty of filling openings. But asking for 10 years experience and a graduate degree or certification while offering a salary barely above minimum wage is ridiculous. I hope such openings are never filled, especially the obnoxious ones offering a laughable salary while pre-emptively preaching at the applicant about the need to hustle, give more, innovate, and embrace the company’s values.

And that’s the word I land on as I jump to and fro in this pathetic morass.

Values.

My experience is that companies only have values when it’s convenient. That’s my message for you today. I’d like things to be different, and sometimes it seems maybe could be someday. But then we take two steps back. And the deeper, uglier truth of this moment in our employment culture is that value systems are increasingly being used as instruments to shape employee behavior rather than guiding stars to protect and safeguard the employee experience.

If you check the websites of companies like Amazon and Google, you can read up on their value systems, which are representative of what we find in most companies.

There is a popular value about the creation of belonging and connection in the workplace. This sounds great, and we should want it because it makes work life better. But companies only care about it when it enhances productivity. The instant your job is in the way of a corporate interest like cost reduction or shareholder posturing, you will no longer belong and you will be literally disconnected. Interests trump values.

There is an implicit (and sometimes explicit) value about creating a familial environment at work. A culture where people are loyal to one another and trust one another. But it’s all decorative. Companies will break up “families” when there is a strong enough interest in doing so.

Actual families don’t reduce their membership when the going gets tough. They hang together. And of all the ways families trust one another, the most profound and unbreakable trust is that which lets family members feel safe and secure that the unit will always be bonded together. This is totally inappropriate for employment relationships because interests trump values in a profit-seeking enterprise. Companies know this. So their use of family as a device is exploitative.

Giving people fulfilling work is another goal commonly propounded in company value systems. People are fulfilled when they feel they’ve made a difference. That their input and ability worked and was appreciated by someone with authority. Companies leverage this feeling to increase output from individuals, with their sense of reward growing as they work harder and do more. Right up until they don’t need the individual anymore. Nothing is quite so good at making someone feel foolish as knowing they gave more than they had to give … since they were going to be fired anyway. It’s when the relationship ends that they realize how fake the appreciation was.

Executives and managers leverage value systems for two main reasons.

First, because values create positive work cultures and environments people want to be a part of. This enhances the work experience, and is worth doing for this reason alone.

Second, because positive cultures reduce burnout, boost productivity, bolster retention, and foster effective team performance. Value-driven teams are resilient, collectively clever, and innovative.

And then, it all turns out to be cheap and frail when someone in the high tower decides, almost always without a scintilla of useful data or a nanosecond of direct observation, that a team should be dissolved. Because they perceive an interest which is more important to them than values ever were, no matter what they said.

And as furious as this all makes me, it shouldn’t, because it’s just the reality we are living in. Dystopian doesn’t begin to describe where we are going, though it is becoming a more accurate label for where we are. When interests trump values, we all become creatures of pure self-interest. A few more inferential steps, and we’re into anarchy territory.

You should feel inherently insecure about any job.

You should harbor reservations about alleged value systems.

You should remember that at the end of the day, you’re not important or valued or even known to the executive or financier who will someday decide you’ve become too expensive.

And trust me, it is inevitable it will happen to you, as it happens to all mere mortals who don’t quit or retire first.

I’ve said before that work is not a family. It isn’t. Enjoy it when it’s going well, but don’t rely on work for your sense of self, to understand your value, or to get fulfillment out of life. This is a path to emotional vacancy and depression.

Because I’ve also said before that companies will not put aside even an acorn’s worth of their profligate profits to safeguard the jobs of their own employees. When the rainy day comes, sheer luck will determine whether you are handed an umbrella or just get rinsed.

Two closing thoughts.

First, if you are a veteran, pay special attention to this post. You come from a genuinely value-driven environment and you are perhaps more susceptible to false corporate messaging.

Second, if you are anyone looking for work, please don’t pay a “coach” or “expert” to “help” you navigate the market. Locate the people in your life who know you best, feed on their knowledge of you to bolster and reinforce your sense of who you are, and go find a role that accepts you as you are. It’s the only sliver of hope you have of being happy in your job.

I know this isn’t necessarily a smile-generating post, but hey, it takes a lot of red pill dosage to offset the blue kool-aid corporate lackeys are doling out by the bucketload.

TC is a former military officer and senior leader in retail operations. He has written and spoken extensively on the relationship between value systems, culture, and operational performance in organizations. Watch for his upcoming book “Frustrated, Incorporated” later this year.