Business | Opinion
Debt of honour to your boss
Most of us can dispense with loyalty to our employers as they show none to us. Your employer is not a faceless company but a decent man who has done you a favour.
- By Lucy Kellaway, Financial Times
- Published: 23:51 August 16, 2008
THE PROBLEM
I've worked for a small, struggling publisher for five years and like and respect my boss. At the end of last year I asked for six months' leave to write a book but, within a few weeks of my return, was offered a better-paid job at a big publishing house. I would jump at it, but feel I have a debt of honour to my boss.
When he allowed me time off the unspoken agreement was that I would not jump ship on my return. If I resign now, he will rightly be angry. But should I do it anyway?
- Publisher, female, 34
THE ANSWER
You are right to feel uneasy. To sidle off now would be a low thing to do. Understandable, but still low. Most of us can dispense with loyalty to our employers as they show none to us. Your employer is not a faceless company but a decent man who has done you a favour.
Luckily, there is an easy way to solve your problem: talk to him. Tell him you have been approached. Tell him you feel tempted. Tell him that you feel under an obligation to him.
It is quite possible he will be relieved. To pay one fewer salary when he is struggling may make him feel Christmas has come early. And as he survived without you for six months, he may not be worried about doing so indefinitely. If this is right, you can both wave farewell fondly and heave your separate sighs of relief.
Equally, it is possible - given what a decent fellow he's - that he will want to keep you but will also understand that small, poor companies can't keep good people for ever, and see five years as a fair whack.
There is another chance (smaller, I think) that he won't take it so well, and will protest that you have broken your unspoken deal.
If he takes this line, you must make that unspoken deal spoken, agree a minimum length of service and serve it with good grace. Then you can assuage your thwarted ambition with the thought that a decent boss whom you respect is rare. One who allows you to go off and write books is rarer still.
If you do stay, there is a risk you may be rewarded by losing your job as times are hard, and small struggling publishers may well fold. Yet you would not necessarily be safe in the big one either: it might not go under, but could well fire first the last one to have been hired.
YOUR ADVICE
No commercially minded boss would allow his best staff to take six months' leave based on an unspoken agreement of loyalty, especially if the business is struggling. He took a needless risk, the foolishness of which does not confer on you any moral obligation to correct his mistake. Don't even wait for him to match the offer - take the other job and move on.
- Director, male, 35
As the credit crunch brings back some of the more old-fashioned values, you should stay loyal for some time - new offers will appear at a more appropriate time.
- Fund manager, male, 48
I was faced with a similar situation - I was offered an attractive job but allowed myself to be talked into staying by my boss, who played on my feelings of guilt. I initially felt smug self-satisfaction but within six months realised I'd made a mistake. Within a year of rejecting that job offer, I was actively soliciting other offers.
- Banker, male, 37
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