Despite any superficial vision or mission statements, the natural law of a corporation is that it must make as much money for its shareholders as it possibly can, by any means necessary. Often this takes the form of a charade of corporate responsibility in order to deceive customers, suppliers, and employees into believing that the company is on their side.
Don’t be fooled—the corporation is not allowed to perform actions that do not in some way generate profit.
As an employee, it’s important to remember that corporate loyalty is a sham. Any effort that a corporation makes to treat its employees well exists only as a ploy to trick them into thinking that they’re cared about so that they may be milked of as much value as possible. The truth is that no matter how much passion you put into your work for a corporation, it will never love you in return.
If at any point you become more of a liability than a profit-generating asset to a corporation, they will dump you faster than you can blink. It will happen regardless of whether or not it was justified, whether or not you’re ill, whether or not your release will have a devastating effect on your life. No matter the circumstance, if it is within the allowances of the law, they will not hesitate.
It’s completely foolish to feel any amount of loyalty to a corporation, either as an employee or as a customer. To be bonded with your coworkers is an honourable arrangement, and you should work to do your best by them. But to form a bond to the cold iron machine will result only in rejection and misery. The corporation may give you a place to work, but you give them something much more valuable.
As an employee you give your employer everything. People in our society are not only expected but required to work 40-hour work weeks to survive. With an eight-hour sleep each night, this represents more than a third of our waking lives. We are not nearly as furious about this as we should be; we are forced to throw away a third of our lives. Not to mention that in exchange for it, many of us receive barely enough to support the remaining two thirds of our time. For what? For “positive economic growth”? To feed Scrooge McDuck’s giant gold-coin-filled swimming pool? Honestly, it’s pathetic that we the people let this happen.
Good value for the people can be derived from the corporate engine. It’s never derived from the benevolence of the overlords, though; it’s derived from their greed. It’s this that can be used to twist the corporation to the will of the people. The corporation will do whatever it must to earn money, and so it is susceptible to the whims of the masses from whom it derives this money. Never forget that the people have power, and together we can bring the villains of the modern era to justice.