What is the biggest lesson that employment has taught you?

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The company doesn't care about you. The company doesn't care about you. The company doesn't care about you.
- My uncle spent years preaching to me about the need to be loyal to a company. I never drank the Kool-Aid. He spent 21 years working for an investment banking company in their IT department. 4 years before he was set to retire with a full pension, etc. his company was acquired by a larger bank. He lost everything except his 401k. He then spent the next 12 years working to get his time back so he’d be able to retire. He died 2 years ago and the company sent a bouquet of flowers.
  THE COMPANY DOESN’T CARE ABOUT YOU!!
  
  How do you lose a pension? It doesn't matter where you work or if a company gets bought.
  
  So the way he explained it to me was that essentially when the company was purchased all your accruals were reset and the pension was tied to years of service, which he hadn’t reached yet, then with the merger you were essentially a new employee. There was also a lot tied to retirement plans linked to corporate stocks that were basically useless after they merged. Either way, beyond working for the same company forever, his eggs were (mostly) in one basket.
  
  Yet another reason to be glad to live in the EU:
  TUPE Regulations
  Basically, "any employee's contract of employment will be transferred automatically on the same terms as before in the event of a transfer of the undertaking. This means that if an employer changes control of the business, the new employer cannot reduce the employees' terms and conditions"
  This regulation and strong unions are the backbone of job security in the EU.
  
  Strong unions
  Yeah. Very Strong...
  🇵🇱
- The company cares about you in the same way a beef farmer cares about his cattle.
  
  No, they don't care that much
- Not even if you do valuable or efficent stuff for the company. You're disposable.
  
  The company is always on the lookout for ways to replace you with somebody who will do more for less.
  And in the meantime, they will squeeze you for every drop of effort they think they can get away with.
  
  Or less for less. I know a woman who is a manager of a dialysis clinic, as soon as she was making over 100k she started getting pushback from higher ups, having more oversight, and having her funds for extra services to patients / staff cut. It's clear they want her out even though she has the lowest mortality in the region, because they don't need more than beds filled (Medicaid pays) and legally required minimums to be met.
  
  also you might not be replaceable but your manager might be an idiot
- They refer to you as .... HUMAN RESOURCES
  You aren't a person, you are an instrument the company uses to make more money for itself. If you die or can no longer work, you will be replaced by another human resource.
  
  I had a prof twisting himself into knots trying to argue that human resources really is a positive term because companies care about and maintain their resources
- The people on the top of the company don't care, either... Even if it seems like the really like you alot.

597 comments