Yet many employees, professionals and faculty cling to old assumptions about one of the most critical relationship of all: the implied, unwritten contract between employer and employee.

Until recently, loyalty was the cornerstone of that relationship. Employers promised job security and a steady progress up the hierarchy in return for employees’s fitting in, performing in prescribed ways and sticking around. Longevity was a sign of employeer-employee relations; turnover was a sign of dysfunction. None of these assumptions apply today. Organizations can no longer guarantee employment and lifetime careers, even if they want to.

Organizations that paralyzed themselves with an attachment to “success brings success’ rather than “success brings failure’ are now forced to break the implied contract with employees – a contract nurtured by management that the future can be controlled.

Jettisoned employees are finding that the hard won knowledge, skills and capabilities earned while being loyal are no longer valuable in the employment market place.

What kind of a contract can employers and employees make with each other? The central idea is both simple and powerful: the job or position is a shared situation. Employers and employees face market and financial conditions together, and the longevity of the partnership depends on how well the for-profit or not-for-profit continues to meet the needs of customers and constituencies. Neither employer nor employee has a future obligation to the other. Organizations train people. Employees develop the kind of security they really need – skills, knowledge and capabilities that enhance future employability.

The partnership can be dissolved without either party considering the other a traitor.

If “sex, pregnancy or maternity leave, race, religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership status or gender reassignment” are prohibited grounds, overweight employees can still sue on disability, not to mention there’s a world of other diseases that could make one look or feel “ugly”…but why can’t employees take responsibility for their own actions and deal with discrimination if they don’t take the effort to make themselves presentable? Smokers, you’re next.

I’m just analyzing it from an American, social Darwinist p.o.v., but common sense and humility should remain in the workplace. A nation of laws puts drunks behind bars, so it would be hypocritical to help those who WON’T help themselves.

My site covers all the latest related news and research, books, links–everything associated with SRI.

It’s at http://investingforthesoul.com/

Best wishes, Ron Robins

http://www.brighthorizons.com/employer/employersolutions.aspx

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