This thread is a good read for me, it makes me appreciate who I am working for. I break most of these rules and they make it worth my while. It is a small outfit and I do it all for them. I run the shop truck, lowbed, dump truck, grader, and all the other equipment as needed and am pretty good at all of it. I never have to worry about having something to keep me busy and never have to worry about getting time off when I want it. They take care of me the best they can and I take care of them as best I can. Some days it seems like too much but the next day comes and I don't mind getting up early and starting over. I take Sunday off though, that is important to me. Thanks for giving me a reminder of the real world!
That is a great post.
I partially disagreed with several of John's rules but #5 I think is the most substantial. Every business runs different and certainly there are circumstances that would make that advice sound. However, loyalty is important in any relationship from personal to professional, but it is a two way street. I view it like this, both employee and employer work on a systems of debits and credits. Each party does things that create a credit with the other, an example would be the employer gives the employee time off he may not have earned yet to attend an important personal event. That credit that the employer earned by allowing the employee to take off becomes a debit when it is used by the employee when he agrees to work OT on a day that he had something planned. Simple examples, but hopefully it conveys the point. Much like your bank account, you can only pull debits when you have earned enough credits. When both employer and employee work together for the benefit each other, you can create a great working relationship. Lack of effective communication is usually the cause of bad blood. It is the responsibility of both to communicate when things are not going right. Also it is important to communicate a job well done (employer) and showing appreciation of keeping me on when it was slow (employee). As pointed out, that is important to almost everyone, regardless of whether they admit to that or not.
Sometimes hard choices need to be made from an employer. What can appear as being disloyal, may in fact be a necessity. No different when an employee leaves for something better. It may look like a disloyal move by the employee to the employer but is just a natural move to improve your personal position.
Communication and a proven track record of loyalty and looking out for the other party, helps to prevent these types of misunderstandings.
If you find yourself working in an environment that is not loyal to you, you should look for something else. If your hiring employees that are not loyal to your operation, you should hire a replacement. Mutal loyalty is important, no relationship succeeds without it.