The harsh economic climate has frayed relationships between middle-class workers and their employers. An already-strained sense of loyalty has been further damaged by stagnant wages, rapid-fire mass layoffs and persistent fears of job loss.
Few people still in the workforce realistically expect 30-year careers at one employer. But most expect better than what they have.
For now, many middle-class workers think they have too much work, too little job security and too little pay. And those who have been laid off, and are fighting to stay in the middle class, believe employers may have stacked the deck against them.
The fallout from the strained employee-employer relationship can be seen in several key ways:
• Workers are networking aggressively, not for fun but because they fear they could lose their jobs.
"A lot of people are looking at networking," said Christina Wagner, who started AZ Social Networking three years ago.
If you are working or have a business, those relationships can help strengthen your career and add opportunities, she said. And "if you are in career transition, you have a whole community."
Today, it's common for job seekers and workers alike to post resumes on websites such as LinkedIn or about.me. Ten years ago, if a worker did that, it would have been frowned upon at the office and that worker would have been labeled a job hopper.
• Workers are taking fewer professional risks in the workplace, and that lack of innovation may hurt workers' career prospects as well as companies' bottom line.
"Tough times kind of make everybody hunker down, companies included," said Blake Ashforth, a professor at Arizona State University who studies organizational behavior at large companies.
They are "more likely to look at employees less as investments and more as costs, which is unfortunate because I think their long-run interests are still yoked to their employees," Ashforth said.
Employees quickly pick up on these vibes in the office, and it influences their behavior. That means workers are less likely to take risks or innovate because lying low feels safe and draws less attention, he said.
• Workers are increasingly ready to jump ship to new jobs. Positions are scarce now, but when the economy heals, companies may risk an exodus of talent.
Thirty-six percent of employees hope to work for a different employer in the next 12 months, according to MetLife's ninth annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends, which was released this year.
The study notes that employee loyalty hit a three-year low. Just 47 percent felt a strong sense of loyalty to their employer and only 33 percent felt that their employer was loyal to them. That was down from 59 percent and 41 percent, respectively, in 2008.
"I don't think that there is such a thing as loyalty anymore," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger Gray and Christmas Inc., a global outplacement firm. "Companies can't promise a long-term job, and people think of themselves as free agents."
