One Foot Out the Door: How to Combat the Psychological Recession That’s Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business

Chapter Two. The Psychological Recession

A NOT-SO-FUNNY THING HAPPENED on the way to the twenty-first century: people stopped caring about their jobs.

Until relatively recently, the most important stakeholders in American organizations were the employees. They came to work each day with commitment, loyalty, even passion, and, because they sensed that the company felt the same commitment toward them, they gave it their all.

Now, after years of downsizing, outsourcing, and a cavalier corporate attitude that treats employees as costs rather than assets, most of today’s workers have concluded that the company no longer values them. So they, in turn, no longer feel engaged in their work or committed to the company. The reality of mutual codependence ...