Loyalty is a One-Way Street

We are in the dog days of summer and my beloved Mets are doing their annual second-half flop to last place. So naturally my thoughts turn to football, and that brings me to…Peyton Manning.

Yes, the same Peyton Manning who was unceremoniously dumped by his former team, the Indianapolis Colts last year. Even after he brought the team a Super Bowl title and did nothing but play like a superstar for the Colts, management decided to go with a younger quarterback.

Not that I can’t blame the Colts. Manning is, after all, well into his 30s and coming off neck surgery. In sports, younger is better. And there was the not insignificant matter of a $28-million bonus the team would have owed him had they kept him on the roster. (Odd isn't it, that the same management that agreed to that ridiculous clause used it as a reason for not keeping him.)

Yet I can’t feel too sorry for Manning, either. He signed on with the Denver Broncos for about $90 million. Not exactly chump change.

Nevertheless, the whole incident shows just how little loyalty employers have toward their employees, even the great ones. Loyalty between employers and employees is a one-way street nowadays. Employers expect workers to be loyal to the company yet they give us no loyalty in return.

Companies know employees can’t move easily to others jobs; therefore, they know we must put up with little or no raises, bad working conditions and high-deductible health plans. Really, some deductibles are so high that the only way anyone could meet those numbers is to get hit by a truck.

If we complain? Too bad, say bosses. If you don’t like it find something else. But they know we can’t. The general attitude is we are lucky to have a job.

And what are companies giving workers in return?

Cue the sound of crickets chirping…

Not much. Companies have made it very clear they will cut workers en masse when it suits them, even if we are doing a good job. Their loyalty is to the bottom line, not us.

So we sit in our cubicles and seethe, waiting and hoping for the economy to turn and create more jobs.

Because when the economy does turn, and eventually it will, it always does, how much loyalty do we think we are going to show our employers?