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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1958)
by 4mmH H. Bon Piotoi by Mickey Pallas TflflE oth I c.lb3d cfti htlf-dozen salaried executives. Tltfy -offe for different com panies yet thp ptttern of thtir conversation wff frighteningly similar. All ix di.f)oDd of the VjLiSirteS on which I had s quickly as pwSSible; thpn each man lura.'hd into t lngthy complaint ajainst his place ctf bwsintes, his empVyr, nl even the products whrKc sale paid hi 4ry. I knew nong? of the 40 mfth intimately, yet they ccfc&ln't wait to fill Ate in can the alleged stupidities of thpir superior. Tlu?a; Were not tock-roxtt httyS or nKWlj em ployed clerk 5jaking, rAd you; they Were menagcis with tcjp-level responsibilities. Yet, so vitriolic were their cOitburStff that listener couldn't help wondering: ufce do tkajr (ty it (keir jobs? The comments of one bright executive a family man in his middle thirties, perexikxable, intelligent, talented was fairly tygicfll. "Our product is going to pot," he said, "becauna tftey'va closed theix minds to idoas upstairs. Our competitors era iwiproviivg and progressing. We're going backward They won't listen to me here, so I desto't 8 bother tfl offer; suggestions any more." Yet this man was out tll&Vg his) fcorjftjpany'f) product in a highly competitive figW! The great American habit of grigs&g threatens, Xol reach unmanageable proportions gnt ttere'8 ft v$r$ fine line between griping arGi digjoyafcCp- QrigXftg) sometimes can be a way to let off5 QgaQ but disloyalty is dishonesty! Griping probably never was deGlof3i G iir& an extent as during World War II, when AmOricQn servicemen made it their favorite pastime. But this had no effect on their loyalty to the United States; when they fought, they fought very well, indeed. But the griping habit, carried over into business life after the war, has too often created a sour attitude toward employers. This, in turn, has rendered many a good worker virtually useless. Royalty to an employer has earned some workers the contemptuous label of "company man" which is supposed to set an individual off as a kind of management spy. Thus loyalty often is mistakenly associated with such traits as spineless ness and toadying. I have a good friend who is an accomplished storyteller. Over the past few years, he feels his ideas have not been given proper consideration at Lcsifia is a common type of disloyalty. , 0 .'J1.v"J,;.;, Criticizing one' company and It products ... & H an occupational disease that's highly contagious; !Ssi - 6 A. 0 0 his company, and he ha grown QvQr ffijt $it: about the situation. He vents his spleen by telling wonderfully funny stories about his company and his product at social gatherings, where he is frequently a center of attention. On the surface, these stories sound whimsical. But basically, what they do is hold both the company and the product up to ridicule so biting that it makes a tremendous impression on the listener. It's inevitable that these stories are repeated by the people who hear them, and the company and the product both suffer as a result. Tearing dovn yaar boss Won't feoijJd up yocor a &Sj3$ go tos&fdbsss?, and' IB 06Q oscasfr nfcfte dam- Oerbgp thQ cWcfelg) oP thiS) company are short sigh'ted and bigoted, gerhnps conditions are every bit as bad as he portrays them. This really has no bearing on the situation. The man is wasting his talents and his employer's time; he should get out! This is not to say that conformity is desirable. Far from it. Honest differences in viewpoint are healthy and should be aired; such is the stuff on which progressive companies are built. Nor is it to say that there won't be personality clashes within an organization. Aggressive, determined, resourceful, principled people will not always see eye-to-eye; 12 Family Weekly, February 2, 19SS iMyr HVoMr - 7 Q3 : ( f ;- If you want to bore someone, especially a busi ness caller, tell him what a lousy job you have. Stories about the boss seem funny in the tell ing, but they can cause ridicule of your firm. they'll have arguments that may lead to temporary ill-feeling. But these things blow over in the bigger and more pressing problem of getting the job done. It's when these personal differences bitterness toward tU company or resentment at seaming in justice mqnopolije thought, and becoirtB mora im portant thpn doin the job that dfongsr loome. LAfW Le?i ere oc to youP ofnglppap? Asft joar 3alP 1ioJs$ questions: 1. Do yew ever fenocfe la prcjrittck oP rvicQ ?it phijh you are asQaEiotad? CiS dHWSn't mean tt you sJtpuW cbiiw gPoiffliQS for your groduct tRat don't axis or Stog trying to imgrov it. Nor doos it mean you $Wd unjully finolB your competitor's produift.) 2. Do you majje a regplflr pifkctice of criticizing your company or associates at casual social gatherings? 3. Do you resent the fellow at the office who keeps his mouth shut and does his job, who refuses to be drawn into backbiting sessions? 4. Do you spend a lot of on-the-job time doing personal things because you feel your efforts aren't appreciated anyway? 5. Do you look forward to employee bull sessions where you can denounce the boss or the system? If you must answer "yes" to any of these, ques tions, you're probably working far below your potential and you're due for a good, hard piece of self-examination. In the midst of this spreading contempt for loyalty to employers is an interesting and significant figurO: people are not changing jobs nearly as frequently as they used tQ The "quit rate" in business today is only 1.6 percent, an incredibly low figure for a period of prosperity when job-changing normally increases. (During the depression, the rate was 1 percent; during the war, it was 6 percent, which fell off to 3 percent in the early '50s). The principal reasons, according to Ewan Clague, U.S. Commissioner of Labor Statistics, are loss of seniority rights; nontransferable pension and welfare benefits; the growing proportion of older workers; and the increasing, often pathetic, security-minded-ness of Americans of all ages. Also, employers have somehow lost the fine art of firing people thus compounding the problem themselves! All these things tend to keep a mai on his present job, even though he may hate it. Thus, in one of our greatest eras of prosperity, we are breeding thousands of malcontents too fearful or too con servative or too security-minded to make a move. To the chronic malcontent, of course, changing jobs won't solve anything. He'll be as unhappy and ill-adjusted in his new job as in the old. His only salvation is a complete change of attitude. But th mgn who is hpnfltly ffloking a pfcc Where hjs oOji mokU maximum u3 qf h tfllants frd bilitgfci should mov8 cjn. One of the hapdtosSi atca I fcfu & 0 e&-y-9Stt-o&l who two years eqgio waJlj&iJ cfctt eta an SxflcutiOfl job in a cccmpswy wtaa hJJ feed b3SS ajRp&jjff&J for 35 years. Ha ftftd tefflta ccwliaiQri to dji Cnatiirg tltflg) violated hifi jj tHPiy. Wtato ftp wftSttl tWdjj i thjj presSurQ pliO qjj ftTOsaHO i0:daua4Joj J hQ simply quit. He cc&ld g(5?q6JJ.(JK q QujtfbsD tUrSi yQ&rs (ynd collected hjp pQs&tU H tjjQ cchile nursing a wound he knew would nevQr hefll as long as he was with this company. But he had no taste for wasting three years of his life or his employer's money. He quickly found another job where his abilities are being used to maximum advantage, and he's wonderfully happy. Chronic dissatisfaction eventually and inevitably turns into disloyalty. It helps no one least of all the person who expressesQt Family Weekly, February 2, 1958 13
