# Workers Owe Their Employers Nothing By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-06-01 One's ideology is difficult to identify. Ideology forms much of what is taken for granted. Much of how one approaches work is deeply rooted in unacknowledged ideology. One aspect of the accepted ideology is that a worker should appreciate one's employer for providing a job or career. The company isn't doing the employee a favor. If the company could do without an employee, it would. Companies "downsize" frequently. Also, the company doesn't care who it hires. Whenever a given employee quits or dies, the organization will replace that worker if perceived as needed. For these reasons, the worker does not need to feel indebted to the employer for the job. Further, the organization is always in arrears, often by at least two weeks, sometimes as much as a month. At any given time, a worker has done a significant amount of work for which one still needs to be paid. The company makes money by holding on to this aggregated sum and making individuals wait for the money they have earned. When a company fires an individual, it is done on the spot. A person is notified and then escorted out of the building. Yet, people have been enculturated to believe that they owe the company two weeks' notice if they intend to quit. Workers owe their employers nothing. All these ideological understandings exist for the employer's benefit, not the employee's. This is not meant to imply that one should be careless or destructive; far from it. Ideally, one likes where one works, respects everyone in the organization and wants to contribute to the organization's continued success, even after moving on. As one makes important life decisions, one doesn't have to be constrained by what one thinks one owes to an organization. One owes it nothing, and it wouldn't reciprocate the professional courtesy. This aspect of the current business ideology constrains individuals within the United States. It is time for greater attention to this neglected and consequential concern. #### Related Items [[Work]] [[Ideology]] [[Quitting]] [[Layoffs]] [[Life]] [[Decision-making]] [[Norms]]