There are many reasons people leave companies and there is one people don't leave. And it can destroy your career.
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We all worked in a bad company that we couldn't stand anymore and we just quit. With a plan or without one we quit and go to search for a greener field. At the end of the day no sane person would want to stay when they clearly see that the company is going down. Yes for some reason some people stay in the job until the everyone else has gone, the doors are shut and the only thing that's left is to turn the light off.
There are companies where it's visible that their business earns little, yet they are trying to stay afloat by loans, hoping that things will be better. Those are companies that don't raise a red flag early, but instead wait until it's too late to save them. For some reason you will find them in every market.
The first reason why people stay on the job is the uncertainty that they won't be able to find a job. Maybe the situation is not right, maybe the market is weak right now, maybe they are just insecure.
The second reason is they hope the situation will be better and the company will somehow be better. And they are loyal workers who won't quit. But loyalty is not a way to go.
Loyalty means that you should give the best of yourself for the company but the company should give the best to you. But if you do your best and everyone around and the company still goes down, that means it didn't give its best.
Employees are giving their best because they think, among other things, that it's their duty to go far to make the job done but they forget that the company's goal is something else. Maybe profit, maybe market reach, maybe influence, but never employees.
Loyalty is not a reason to stay on the job indefinitely, hoping that the things will go better.
The third reason is dangerous and yet can be seen way too often. A good environment.
If you are lucky you have good colleagues. You all work hard and have a great time at work, you work hard but without stress, you go to parties together. You can do anything you want and you are like a big family, minus usual family stressed and worries and arguments.
You can work overtime with a smile and get everything done and then go home satisfied. It is hard to find such a company of men but it is possible and such firms exist.
But when the bad times strike that's your trap. And for everyone else for that matter.
When things are not good you tend to stick together to your colleagues and work together even harder to try to pull your company out of bad times. You can do that for months, sometimes for years but you forgot one thing: it's not all about you.
The management makes decisions every day about your future, they will make their decision no matter do you hate or love your colleagues, and they will continue to do so.
And you can see it. You laugh, comment your managers, make fun. Everybody laughs and then go back to work just to press even harder, hoping that hard work will make things right.
"We all are going down but it's fun." "Colleagues are good so we'll think about future later." "It's good while it lasts."
It's not good while it lasts but in fact if you hear one of those sentences you should be on the exit door right away.
This is the curse some companies fell into and sometimes deliberately: Hire good people, make good atmosphere and people will work until the judgement day. But they have some hidden reason for that and they are pushing it as far as it can go.
And this is the most dangerous job in the world. A job in the company when you have such great colleagues that it's hard to quit, yet you know that things can't end well. And you hope some divine force will make things right. But they won't because they don't care about you.
So, what to do?
Stay. Very bad option.
Talk to the management. Most likely you will not achieve anything but it's worth to try.
Quit. There is no point to stay in a company that goes down forever. That's most probably the best thing you can do in that situation. ■
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