Exam Info

Should you be "loyal" to a company?

If you're a manager with one of the big 4 (or the "gang of 4," as I call them ... it's a 70s joke ... ), what's cheaper: to keep an examiner by paying more money, or by making the examiner feel guilty?

You've probably heard this, or something close: "Will you be loyal to [fill in the blank with the name of a company here]?" And examiners feel guilty. They worry that if they take their business elsewhere, that manager might lose her job. Or whatever.

The issue is not being loyal. As an examiner, you owe loyalty to you, to your customers, and to those you examine. If you're staying with a company or branch office because you would feel guilty if you took your business elsewhere, that loyalty is costing you a heap of money.

The manager, regional reps, office staff: they are not there to be your friends. Oh, I hope you like the people that you work with, and I hope you want to help them out whenever you can. But the best way they can be your friend is by paying you more than anyone else does.

It's like I always recommend: let everyone you do work for know that you work for more than one company. If you don't, they will treat you like the endentured servant that you have made yourself.

Be loyal to your spouse, your friends, your children, parents, whatever. But a company is a company. Don't confuse these matters.

And have a good weekend. Don't work too hard.

posted by Jim Huffman @ 7:29 AM