An article on Job Security

Just a NY Times article I read this morning regarding job security. It related to the job security illusion idea that I thought of the other day. It also reminded me for those job offers letter I've seen so far, all of them had a similar clause about employment at will...which means both parties can terminate the employement at anytime with or without reasons. To me, it's a sign to tell me that "grow up, be independent! There's no more life time guarantee employment nowadays and we all need to continually learn and grow to keep up with the competitions."

Take a look at this article....

A New Game at the Office: Many Young Workers Accept Fewer Guarantees

By STEVE LOHR

When Vincent Papke joined I.B.M. in 1963, the implicit bargain was simple - his labor and loyalty for security. Getting rich was not an expectation, but a steady job and regular raises were. The company, he recalled, was a kind of extended family. There were company basketball and softball teams, company activities for the kids, and company social gatherings like Christmas parties.

"They trained you," he said. "You worked hard, you played hard and you advanced."

So it was for Mr. Papke over the next three decades, as he rose from an accountant to a series of management and marketing jobs. "You would never leave - you had a cradle-to-grave mentality," said Mr. Papke, 63, who took a buyout package and did leave I.B.M. in the early 1990's, when the company was struggling and cutting its payroll.

Steven Cohn, 29, came to I.B.M. earlier this year with a very different mentality. He worked previously at an investment bank and an Internet advertising company, and then got an M.B.A., before signing up with I.B.M. as a software salesman.

Mr. Cohn has a checklist of things he looks for in an employer. He should be excited, he said, by the vision and strategy of the company, its management and by the opportunities he will have to make contributions, add to his skills and further his long-range career goals. Compensation, he said, should be based on merit and his market value.

The two men can be seen as bookends that illuminate how much the corporate social contract has been transformed for managerial and skilled professional workers in America. Clearly, the old loyalty-for-security bargain that underscored Mr. Papke's career is fading in corporate America. But what is the new social contract? What are the reasonable expectations of the rights and responsibilities of companies and workers these days?

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