The tech layoffs of 2023 have come as a shock to many that work in technology - and has personally impacted my friends and family who mostly work in tech. It highlights advice I often give that I've painfully learned over my decade long, diverse career: bring value, not loyalty.
In summary, your company doesn't really care about what you've done for them before today, and they especially don't care how long you've worked there, or the sacrifices you've made for them. What they care about is the future - how much value are you going to bring them from today. Shareholders, executives, managers, and the corporate world (or any business for that matter) inherently look forward - growth, opportunity, future revenue. Looking backwards is for financial analysts to benchmark performance. The same applies to you - loyalty can masquerade as a two way relationship, provide a sense of comfort, confidence, and trust. The truth is companies do encourage loyalty, as internal organisational experience is an accelerant for productivity, but it's part of your value proposition, rather than loyalty in itself.
Focus on your value proposition and growth - what are you bringing to the table today, and what will you bring tomorrow. Don't focus on your company - If you can add more value somewhere else, then do it, you will be recognised and compensated more in reflection of the greater value you bring. In many cases, your current company is where you offer the most value, which is great because you're in the right place, for now. If not though, don't bet on tenure to keep things going for you.
The past doesn't matter
We all want to do a good job, and will often go above and beyond to deliver success for our companies, on the principle that success is shared and we will be rewarded in-kind. All companies want to keep growing and maximising profit, so it's not what you've done that matters, it's what you're potentially going to do. This creates a problem - employees believe they've worked hard and made a lot of sacrifices, and have shown loyalty, therefore deserve to stay and demonstrate they will keep it up. For companies, they don't care about the past and they're looking at what the future brings, which may not include your skill-sets.
I learned this the hard way at Microsoft. In my five years there between 2013 - 2017, and every year since, especially in 2023, I saw most of my colleagues "re-organised", "re-structured". or "laterally moved", many talented and tenured staff were let go, some with over 20 years of service with the company. For some of these people, they have given the entirety of their working careers to the company and have made tremendous impact over the years that has undoubtedly generated more money than their total compensation. The problem was however, from the company's perspective, their future value is diminishing - especially with the rapid change in technology. Younger, quicker, more ambitious staffers are stepping up, and experience can be learned. For many long service staff, it came as a rude shock that the skills they had was more focused on the organisation rather than their tradecraft, resulting in a tough employment market once out.
Loyalty reduces your earning potential
Loyalty is what humans are about. We like to create tribes, families, and groups where we are stronger together. This translates into our places of employment, where we naturally believe that loyalty goes both ways between us and our employers. Employers love loyal employees, but it's not great news for you. The longer you stay with an organisation, the more experience you gain and the more productive you become in accomplishing your task. This presents a major benefit to employers, as your return on investment becomes better for them. The bad news is you will not get a proportional pay increase to reflect your productivity increase. A study from Forbes found that employees who don't switch jobs every 2-3 years earn 50% less than their counterparts. Most companies are not in the business of pro-actively increasing your compensation in accordance with your output. They're in the business of maximising profit, which means widening the gap between revenue and costs (i.e. you). The marketing of loyalty is one of the best ways for a company to reduce their long-term costs as they have to pay relatively less for significant improvements in your skill-level, and far less than the cost of replacing you. What this means for you is quite simple - the longer you stay, the less you make. The skills you learn on the job, where transferable, may be far more valuable outside than in.
Grow your skills for yourself and your company
You are hired for your skills. One mistake employees make is spending a lot of time learning how their company works and developing a very narrow and niche skillset for their specific company. The problem here is you become dependent on the company, while the company beenfits, they're far less dependent on you (despite how you may feel). Remember everyone is replaceable, and often within four weeks. The challenge is when the company lays you off after you've invested considerable effort in the organisation - you have less marketable or transferable skills for other organizations as you've spent all your time creating your own internal niche. Ironically, many companies lay-off their niche staff specifically because they can't see the skills they bring other than navigating the organisation. Keep in mind - are you learning for your own growth that benefits organisations, or the benefit of your organisation?
Create forward value
There's really only one thing you should do - be valuable to your current and future employers by being forward looking and growing your trade-craft holistically. Constantly sharpen your skills as you would outside of the company, have fresh perspective, leverage your internal experience where necessary, but don't hesitate to act as if you've just joined sometimes too. It sounds simple in writing, but it requires constant attention to prevent languishing in the bowels of a company.
Fair game
So how do I approach employment then? By playing fair. Acknowledge that you bring forward value every day, and your company rewards you for this specifically. The work you've done yesterday doesn't matter and never will, so don't kill yourself working long or stressful hours now and into the future, because yes you'll get recognition today, but it won't matter tomorrow. Spend time with your friends, family, and pursuits - they will go the distance.
Constantly focus on yourself - your tradecraft, your transferable skills, your expertise. And constantly assess if you are optimising your value with that of your organisation. As an example, I am very comfortable and thrive in sales and customer facing situations - it's a skill that one company doesn't appreciate, but is the most valuable skill I offered at another. Don't be sub-optimal, as the second company will see my sales abilities as more valuable than the first.
Lastly, remember we are essentially businesses ourselves - we sell our expertise, make sure you're offering the right product to the right customer.