I know a lot of employees of various banks - higher rank positions as well - , who do not have their securities with their employer. If you are asking me, as long as you keep your mouth shut and stay under the radar, this probably will work out. Never heard about a case, where the employer wanted to see the tax statement or even about a case, where someone got fired.
I pay 4.783% for my USD lombard loan with my employer. CHF is in the 1.x% range.
That is exactly one of the core problems with multinationals. A small number of people benefit from these cycles while having very little real interest in the long term health of the company, and therefore very little real interest in the people inside it.
The pattern is always sold as strategy, efficiency, transformation, or optimization, but in many cases it just looks like short term greed dressed up as management. By the time the damage becomes obvious, the CEO or the top layer of leadership is often already gone, and they simply take that same mindset somewhere else.
What makes it even worse is that the company keeps losing experience, continuity, and trust every time this happens, but those costs are rarely paid by the people making the decisions.
Iâve worked in the corporate world my entire career (now semi-retired) and have doen well⊠but, time and time again, Iâve consistently seen that you simply can not and should not assume loyalty⊠even less so when you have the personality to speak up for whatâs right or take good actions which may rock the boat. How many times Iâve see people told by HR âwe paid your salary on time each month during the xx years you worked for this company, so there is no reason to now complain about being terminated or getting a modest severanceâ.
While itâs liberating to be financially independent, and I would prefer if I didnât have to say it, you must assume zero loyalty and you must treat the company (or the executives) with utter contempt⊠because thatâs how you are also viewed / treated (if you cut through all the BS on websites about corporate values). All the BS around values, employee engagement focus, etc. is simply to extract more labor without paying more. Sure, some will say that is cynical⊠in fact, I think itâs rational and you should be awake about it. Make it appear as if you drink the Koolaid, nod, smile, etc. and let âthemâ feel you are part of the masses falling under their control⊠but be very aware that all the BS is essential a collective form of self-deceipt.
Two quotes from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
First, appealing to the quixotic idealist in me: âEven in a world filled with deception and confusion, a single truth can shine brighter than all the lies. We should always strive to seek and speak the truth in our own lives, as it holds the power to inspire change.â
The second, appealing to my ice cold sense of realism (changed country to company): ââWe know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our company, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this company.ââ
This is exactly how Iâm playing the game now.
Reading this made me think of a TV series called Severance that I recently started watching without really knowing much about it beforehand. At first I thought it was probably too strange for my taste. But then, in a very odd way, I started recognizing certain feelings and patterns in it. I will not say more because I do not want to spoil anything for anyone who has not seen it.
What struck me is that after a short while, what first looked like just a weird sci-fi concept started revealing itself as a very strong and powerful metaphor. And once that clicked, it became extremely clear.
That mix of corporate language, control, performance, detachment, and the gap between official values and lived reality felt much less fictional than I expected. Strange feeling, honestly.
I had first hand visibility on a lot of ethics cases / investigations, especially at my most recent employer, as it came with the job to sometimes take action (while most of these topics were handled by HR or Legal) incl. sometimes against an individual and sometimes more broadly. What I started to notice after a while was that the company wasnât really interested in âwhatâs rightâ or âwhatâs legalâ but much more around âprotecting the companyâs interestsâ. Now, the latter should be no surprise but I also observed cases where - if youâd read the corporate values statements, the ethics guidelines, etc. - youâd expect the company to be honest and say âwe screwed up, we apologize, we take ownership to make it rightâ⊠but then in reality it would not work like that⊠the reaction was much more focused on deny/delay/obstruct (e.g. in order to protect executives involved or people within HR/Legal/Finance who were involved). It was not about âwhatâs rightâ but about managing optics and risk mitigation. I realize this sounds cynical, but itâs true⊠and Iâve come to believe that the companies/people who are most vocal about being âgoodâ often wind up being the most âevilâ ones when youâre able to dig and see the truth.
Frankly speaking, despite being a hardcore capitalist, Iâve grown to be increasingly disgusted by the corporate world⊠although with some more distance now I like to quote Elvis Costello: I used to feel disgusted, now I just try to be amused!
Itâs made me a lot more convinced / appreciative of things like whistleblowers and correcting powers (whether individuals, laws, watchdogs, etc) who ensure checks/balances are in place. Without it, capitalism will drive very, very nasty behaviour.
Another relevant quote (attributed, correctly or not, to George Orwell): âIn a Time of Universal Deceit â Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Actâ
Iâm a bit of a revolutionary in the corporate environment in this regard - I tend to speak up even when it hurts me. It scares the hell out of people - simply stating the truth. Taking it a step further, have had some processes for exec roles since semi-retiring and have noticed it also scares the hell out of corporate people when itâs clear that youâre FIRE and therefor they wonât have control over you.
Annoying in some ways, but very much a great feeling of being liberated (by my own hard work).
I also watched this without knowing about what it was. I was hooked.
Itâs disorienting, nauseous and yet eerily familiar.
A bit like the jester in the kingâs court?
Well, the jester is tolerated whereas I got executed 