The Canadian workforce is apparently growing increasingly disloyal.
According to recent findings from Ipsos Reid’s Build a Better Workplace syndicated study, 22% of Canadian employees are expressing decreased loyalty to their employer.
The report claims that ‘the figures are consistent nation-wide, with the exception of Québec, where only 10% of the workforce shares this attitude’ but it doesn’t offer possible explanation.
The explanation might be found in what Timothy Keiningham, global chief strategy officer at Ipsos Loyalty, says in the study report:
“As workers, all too often we find ourselves considered disposable. Not surprisingly, our loyalty as employees to the firms where we work has responded in kind. For us as individuals, constant economic change means that we feel always on the brink of losing control. We are forced to live in the moment, and leave tomorrow for the future. What this teaches us can be summed up in the phrase, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ This is the antithesis of loyalty. Loyalty requires a commitment to the future”.
Being forced to live in the moment and leave tomorrow for the future – that’s what Quebeckers are more likely to do whether or not there’s a recession. Ask Canadians whether they agree or disagree with the statement “I try to have as much fun today and let the future take care of itself” and Quebeckers are significantly more likely to agree than Canadians in the ROC. Their more individualist approach to things makes them more likely to look after themselves first. And, when it comes to work, they’re more likely to view it as a ‘job’ than a ‘career’.
Perhaps the findings actually highlight the fact that employees in Québec are not becoming less loyal simply because they weren’t as loyal in the first place. That’s probably why more Quebeckers says that their ‘sense of loyalty’ has remained stable – it just wasn’t very high to begin with.
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