We all think that the company owes us something more than just a paycheck in return for our work. Maybe not. I read this piece and it hit me; that’s not how leadership reads the unwritten part of the employee contract:
https://www.businessinsider.com/ceos-business-leaders-reaction-att-john-stankey-memo-2025-8
In short, it basically says “follow the corporate line to boost shareholder value, or find another job”.
9 replies (most recent on top)
I owe them the amount of work for one FTE, and no more. They expect me to do the work of more than one person because they're understaffed. Their lack of staffing isn't my problem. I'm not management. I didn't lay off my coworkers. If there's too much to do now, that's Management's problem. Maybe management should go find another job. Their the ones making the decisions to pull the funding on projects before they're done, creating more inefficiencies than existed before the project began. They're the ones creating staffing shortages. They lay off the people that tell them it's a bad idea to end projects because they're not done or tell them they shouldn't go live with their half-baked systems. They get rid of the only people who know their way around their archaic IT infrastructure that they've been chronically too cheap and too short-sighted to thoroughly upgrade. Then they get upset because there's problems. Well, duh!!! I'll do the work of one person. No more. They will probably keep ignoring the sound advice of SMEs until there are no more SMEs. They're too arrogant to admit they messed up.
@eg - You'd better not mention Christmas at the office these days! That would be Eurocentric and therefore discriminatory! Diwali and Kwanzaa can be held up on a pedestal though.
Corporate doesn’t know the difference between their a-s and a hole in the ground. They could fire me if they weren’t so clueless.
@OP the owe us not having stress of rolling layoff week after week because of inept decisions.
They owe us the consideration of being treated as adults and not forced to return to office because of arbitrary reasons.
However, you’re right they owe me a paycheck for the job I did and that’s probably it in the scheme of things.
Guess what we don't owe them
Giving up time with our family to meet unreasonable deadlines after they riffed multiple people in the department
Working through lunch for the same reason
So yeah, they may not feel like they owe us some form of stability or appreciation but then they shouldn’t respect anything in return.
What they got from me when I voluntarily left was no more than two weeks notice and me not ki-ling myself to ensure everyone could handle it after I left.
It was no longer my circus and I no longer claimed those monkeys.
Are the shills posting this working for corporate? They’ll fire you faster than you can find the unemployment line
Used to be to increase the bottom line you did that with great service, happy workers and turkeys for Christmas. What built these companies are no longer aligned to the current values.
Super Mario Bros
When the CEO makes 300x the average employee - that is a greed problem - I am more than fine with meeting standards - that is what you hired me for. I have worked more for years for this place and the rewards are few and far between - no more - I showed up, I did my job for 8 hrs. I logged off. I kept up my end of the deal.
Well companies are getting what they’re giving. I’ve adapted to the mindset which is why I don’t give extra. If company wants extra then they get extra. The company line shouldn’t be abusive work practices. Greedy a-s companies would fu-k the employees over any chance they get to make an extra dollar for the shareholders. I’ll stay for now and give less until I can find something better. This mindset change won’t work well longterm. The reckoning will come.