The epitome of entitled. Would you want this guy working for you?

Most Employees Don’t Realize They’re Making a Career-Ending Mistake

• The biggest mistake employees make is assuming their manager works for them.
• The second biggest is the belief that the company exists for their benefit.

That sounds ridiculous, but it’s true — and it’s the foundation of employee entitlement at work.

Some of this mindset is generational, some cultural, but the result is the same: a widening disconnect between employees and the companies that pay them. Working for a company is a choice. Your mortgage or student loans may feel like a gun to your head, but the company isn’t the one holding it.

In recent years, we’ve seen more public clashes between employers and employees. These aren’t minor disagreements — they’re career-ending issues. You might not see the consequences immediately, but when promotions, new opportunities, or layoffs come around, behind the management curtain, they become very real.

Below is an excerpt from the first post in this series: Employed vs. Successfully Employed

When you make your manager’s job easier, you’re actually helping everyone up that chain succeed. That’s leverage — and it’s noticed.

No manager wants to work with an employee who makes their job difficult or resists the company’s direction. (There is a way to speak up, which we will cover in future posts.) 

Employees Work for the Company — Not the Other Way Around

Let’s get real.
Companies don’t exist for employees.
Employees exist for companies.

Founders don’t start businesses to hand out paychecks and free snacks. They start them to solve problems and make money for themselves and their investors. Investors and stockholders don’t invest in companies so employees can climb the corporate ladder. 

When companies do well, employees have the potential to do well. Raises, bonuses, and better benefits are the results of company performance, not entitlements.

So if you’re unhappy with your compensation, benefits, or opportunities, you have two options:

1. 1. Help the company become more profitable.

   2. Find a company that already is.

   3. Start your own company. Just remember to pay everyone well and give great benefits, whether you can afford it or not. 

What Employee Entitlement Looks Like at Work

Here are some of the fastest ways to move your name from “high potential” to “short list” when new opportunities or layoffs are mentioned:

Complaining About Pay in a Tough Economy

When customers aren’t buying, companies aren’t earning. No customers means no raises. Companies exist to create returns for shareholders, not to guarantee salary increases. Complaining about pay during a downturn screams entitlement, not professionalism.

Fighting In-Office Work Requirements

Employees work for the company — not the other way around. If your employer wants you in the office, that’s their call. Arguing about it is like a waiter telling the restaurant where the kitchen should be.

Expecting the CEO to Take a Political Stand

Between 9 and 5, the company pays you to do your job, not to campaign for causes. Productivity pays the bills; politics doesn’t. Every moment thinking about social issues is a moment not thinking about products and services. Both equate to profits.  Profits keep us all employed. 

Treating “Mental Health Days” as a Right

Everyone needs a break — that’s why we have PTO, personal days, and sick leave. But telling your manager, “I need a mental health day because my second cousin broke their leg,” sounds like waving a flag that says, “I can’t handle stress.” The company is paying us for professionalism, and professionalism shows up.

Playing armchair quarterback about your manager

Our manager is our customer and lifeline to the company. They are the golden goose. We need to trust our manager and avoid bad-mouthing their style, approach, and ideas at all times. Your manager is paying you to do a job: supporting them. We can disagree with them when they ask for our opinion, but once a decision is made, we need to back our manager. When we disagree, diplomacy goes a long way. It’s not what we say, it’s how we say it. If you are consistently fighting with your significant other and feel they are stubborn. . .how long will that relationship last?

These behaviors all share the exact root cause: employee entitlement at work — the belief that the company should adapt to the employee, not the other way around. 

If companies adopted the employees’ sentiments, they would go out of business. No one would be employed.

“I Liked It When I Was in the Military…”

A respected colleague once said:

“I liked it when I was in the military. I could just yell at someone, and they were required to carry out the order.”

Obviously, that approach doesn’t work in the corporate world — but it highlights a growing tension. Leaders feel responsible for results; employees increasingly want their work to align with their personal preferences. Somewhere in the middle, productivity and trust fall apart. The company is paying employees to do a job, and like it or not, there isn’t much room for personal preferences. Hobbies are personal preferences, and most of us don’t make enough from them to pay the rent.

What Employees Get Wrong About CEO / Executive Pay

I get it — executive pay looks outrageous. But here’s some perspective.

Think about pro sports. Millions of kids play, but only a few are good enough for their high school teams. A tiny percentage of these high school players make it to the college level. Of those few college players, only a handful will make it to the professional level. Only a handful become franchise players.

The pay rises exponentially at every level because the talent pool shrinks exponentially. There aren’t very many athletes capable of consistent performance. Jordan made the game-winning shot 50% of the time. Baseball players are outstanding if they hit 35% of the time. 

It’s the same in business. There are thousands of employees: fewer managers, fewer Directors, and fewer VPs. Only a few can lead a company. When the company fails, it’s the CEO’s name in the headlines. When it succeeds, everyone benefits. Like it or not, that’s the game. I don’t know how many times I have heard from an armchair quarterback employee telling me how they could do the CEO’s job. No one gets up out of bed thinking, “I am going to F up this company today and hopefully be able to lay off a bunch of employees.”  Oiiii Veyyyy! No leader wants to be known for this. 

I live in Seattle, and the city bemoaned Alex Rodreguiez when he went to the Texas Rangers for $25M a year. Before this, he made $13M over 7 years in Seattle. Any one of us would go to Texas for that kind of money.  When this happened, I thought those who said he didn’t show loyalty were entitled. Any employee would leave the city for ten percent of that kind of money.  He gave the city a chance and then voted with his job. 

Workplace Reality Check: It’s Still a Value Exchange

We’re not in the early 1900s anymore.
No one’s sending twelve-year-olds into coal mines or locking employees in dangerous factories. We have labor laws, safety standards, and paid time off.

Somewhere along the way, the pendulum swung so far toward “employee rights” that we started to forget the basic relationship of employment: it’s a trade of value.

You bring skill and effort. The company brings opportunity and compensation. That’s the deal. There are no guns to heads.

Replace Entitlement with Ownership

If you want more pay, flexibility, and opportunity — stop fighting the customer that is paying you.
Treat your manager and your company like your client, because that’s exactly what it is. What would you expect out of a service provider if you were paying them your annual wage?

Your job is to deliver so much value that your customer (the company) can’t imagine doing business without you.

Do that, and the perks, promotions, and security will follow naturally. Get everyone to think this way, and the company will succeed.

See you at the after party,

HRNasty

nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball”.

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Next week: I explain the number 1 sign of employee engagement and why your manager isn’t sharing your Career Limiting Move with you.