Why your job tenure means nothing to your manager or HR

Madonna reinvents herself; she doesn’t rely on job tenure

Job tenure in corporate America is dead

Someone always believes that because they have been working in a department or for a company for a long time, they are bulletproof. This mentality, which is more subconscious than conscious, usually results in an employee who feels they can sit back and coast. These tenured employees don’t just feel like they sit back and relax; they think it is a privilege owed to them for their years of service. In reality TV parlance, they feel they hold “corporate immunity.”

I hate to break it to you, but your job tenure doesn’t mean jack shit to me. Tenure means nothing unless you are a tenured professor or belong to a union.  (But that is an entirely separate post.) I don’t care if you have 5, 10, or 20 years of tenure with a company.  Your job tenure means nothing to me, and it probably doesn’t mean much to your manager either.  In today’s new economy, job tenure is extinct.  “Reinventing yourself” is the new black. 

I have posted a couple of related topics in the past. 

Why your company doesn’t hire internal applicants

Why I don’t believe in the cost of living raise

Job tenure and the two aforementioned posts point to the same underlying attitude that I consistently observe and hear. Employees become comfortable in their situation and begin to feel entitled. This feeling of entitlement leads the employee to sit back and coast through their 9-to-5. I believe that employees with job tenure should not only avoid an attitude of complacency but also work on reinventing themselves, quarter after quarter and year after year. 

Why Employees with Job Tenure need to reinvent themselves:

• Employees with job tenure are usually the highest-paid employees within a department. After years of job experience and cost-of-living raises, employees’ salaries with job tenure have increased.
• Employees with job tenure are usually considered individuals of influence within the department. 

Are you bringing the value

For the salary that tenured employees are paid, managers will need to ask if you are still bringing the relative value you were when you were first hired.  Can your manager hire two inexperienced employees for the cost of a single tenured employee? 

Employees with job tenure can fall into the same trap as we do with our personal relationships.  When we first met our significant others, we moved mountains to impress them.  Why did we move mountains?  Silly goose, we wanted to get into their pants, of course!  We bought them flowers, made them mixtapes, CDs, or playlists, and held boomboxes over our heads outside their homes, playing Peter Gabriel soundtracks.

With each successive date, we tried to re-impress our newfound crush to raise the bar of chivalry so we could round the bases. If you are in a relationship and the romance has died, don’t count on your tenure to mean anything.  

Don’t take tenure for granted

Why would I blog about this? Because I have seen too many employees become complacent over the years, and this attitude only brings trouble. It gets them laid off, on the unemployment line, and then bitter because the company didn’t show any courtesy for the years of service.  

Guess what happens when you have a majority of your workforce working with an attitude of complacency.  

Another example that comes to mind is gaining weight. We all graduated from high school in the best shape of our lives. Oh, how we wish I could look like that again. You gain a few pounds after a few years in the real world. In the first few years, the extra weight doesn’t show. You can hide it with a loose shirt. We can blame our ill-fitting pants on multiple dryer cycles. In year two, we gained a few more pounds, and in year three, we gained yet another couple. These first few years, that blousy shirt has been working its magic. Ten years later, those 2 to 3 pounds a year look more like 25 pounds overweight, and the number of responses on Match.com wouldn’t be as high as it used to be.  

Don’t fall into the trap of becoming complacent

Generally speaking, the employee who has been with the company for 10 years is paid more than the employee who has been with the company for 1 year for the same job. If you have been with the company for 10 years, your performance and results should justify your high salary, not your tenure. Notice I didn’t mention skill set or knowledge.  You can have both, but the results matter.

If I had to pick between two employees, one with ten years of experience and the other who was green, I wouldn’t just pick the employee with 10 years.  I would look at each employee individually and ask these questions:

• Does this employee still have “the fire”? 
• Are they still helping move the company forward?
• Is the employee just as excited to come to work as they were the day they were hired?
• Is this employee delivering results commensurate with their pay grade?

Last one in, first one out, is no longer affordable

Everyone has heard the phrase “last one in, first one out” or “last one hired, first one fired.” This might have been the case a few generations ago. In this economy, managers are looking for value. The company is paying the employee. The company wants results. Competition doesn’t just come from the business down the street or on the other side of town.  Competition in this economy comes from countries with much lower average annual salaries.  Businesses cannot afford to retain highly compensated employees simply because they have a few years of experience. Companies can retain tenured employees because they consistently produce results that justify their pay.

You don’t want to pay Ferrari prices for a Kia. Nobody wants to pay Filet Mignon prices for lunch meat.  It’s completely OK to be lunch meat.  Lunch meat serves a purpose. Just don’t taste like lunch meat and collect a Ferrari salary.

Take the initiative to meet with your manager and set personal goals

• No manager wants to go through a goal-setting process with employees.  Make it easy on your manager and demonstrate that you care about your career and the company.  Let them know what you will accomplish in the next month or the next quarter.  Have 4-6 goals that are quantifiable and will help your department or company move forward.  All managers appreciate this format.  SMART goals are universally accepted as an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.
• Halfway through your period, update your manager on your progress.  This update can be sent via email or face-to-face.  If it is face-to-face, follow up with an email so they have a record of your progress that can be easily dropped into your file. 
• This check-in also allows your manager to tweak your goals.  If you are working on a project and the department or company goals change, your personal goals must also adapt.  Don’t worry about wasted work.  You are being PAID to do a job.  If you made 2 months of progress on a project and the goals changed at the last minute, remember that you were PAID for the last two months.  Your manager didn’t ask you to return your previous two months’ salary because the company’s goals have changed.
• Let your manager know if you are on track with your goals. If you are not on track, update your manager so they can inform the customer accordingly based on your progress.  With a heads-up, your manager can inform others relying on your progress.   

Reinforce your message

• At the end of your time frame, meet with your manager and update them on your progress.  Make sure to go over these three things:

1. 1. What you accomplished
   2. What you could have done differently
   3. What did you like about the projects  (what you didn’t like is deliberately left off of this list)

Rinse, Lather, and repeat.  

Let your manager know what you will be doing in the next cycle.

The above process may sound like a lot of work, but this will ensure your job security.  Your manager wants to work with employees who make their job easier, help the department, and contribute to the company’s success, usually in that order. 

Some readers are wondering: “Sounds like I am managing myself.  What is my manager getting paid to do?”

My response is that your manager will either help or hinder your career.  Your manager isn’t going to care about employees who don’t help themselves.  This is human nature.  Only a dysfunctional manager will continue to try to save employees and coach the ones who don’t care.  If you don’t care about your career, your manager shouldn’t, and won’t.  Show you care or be as productive as lunch meat.

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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