I was watching an old episode of Industry on HBO recently.

No spoilers, but here’s the moment that stuck with me:

A senior salesperson—someone who had managed a single massive client for years—loses that client. Not through misconduct. Not through negligence. The client simply leaves.

The firm’s response?

They force him to retire.

And then—this is the part I couldn’t shake—they walk him out of the building flanked by security.

Not fired in disgrace.

Not accused of wrongdoing.

Just… removed. Like a threat.

I paused the episode and thought: Why?

What danger does a loyal employee suddenly pose once their economic value dips?

And then it hit me.

This wasn’t fiction.

This was a mirror.

There was a time—within living memory—when work came with an implicit agreement:

Give us your time, your effort, your loyalty—and we’ll give you stability, dignity, and respect.

That social contract is gone.

Not eroded.

Not weakened.

Broken.

Today, you can:

…and still be laughed at.

I recently spoke to someone who did exactly that. When he told his manager he wanted to give notice, the manager laughed and said:

“We don’t do notice here.”

He was escorted out that same day.

No dignity.

No transition.

No trust.

To understand how we got here, we have to rewind.

In the post-WWII era through the 1970s, long-term employment was common in the U.S. Large firms explicitly promoted stability and internal advancement.

That changed in 1970, when economist Milton Friedman famously argued in The New York Times that a corporation’s sole responsibility was to maximize shareholder value.

By the 1980s and 1990s:

By the 2000s:

Between 1980 and 2016, the share of corporate profits returned to shareholders rose to over 90%, up from under 50% decades earlier (Economic Policy Institute).

The message was clear:

Workers were no longer partners.

They were costs.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Companies didn’t just become colder. They became afraid.

And the fear is real — but deeply misapplied.

Studies consistently show:

(Sources: Cyberhaven, Ponemon Institute, Cybersecurity Ventures)

This data is why companies:

But notice the paradox.

If someone plans to steal data, they do it before giving notice.

Walking someone out after they resign doesn’t stop theft.

It punishes honesty.

Here’s what actually happens:

And the cycle feeds itself.

This is why nearly 47% of U.S. workers now admit to quitting without notice, often after years of service (Monster, 2025).

Not because they’re reckless.

Because they’ve learned loyalty is not reciprocated.

Remote work accelerated the breakdown.

When employees became:

Trust was replaced with metrics.

Relationships were replaced with dashboards.

And value became something assessed daily.

Research shows:

(ADP Research Institute, Gallup, MDPI occupational studies)

When value fluctuates daily, dignity disappears.

Walking someone out with security isn’t about safety.

It’s about signaling.

It says:

That message isn’t just received by the person leaving.

It’s absorbed by everyone who remains.

And they adjust accordingly.

They stop giving notice.

They stop over-investing.

They stop believing.

Can the tech industry solve the employee tenure problem?

We now live in a working world where:

This isn’t a moral failure by individuals.

It’s the predictable outcome of a system that optimized for extraction and called it efficiency.

The question isn’t “Why don’t employees show loyalty anymore?”

The real question is:

Why would they?

When loyalty is mocked.

When dignity is withdrawn.

When doing the right thing becomes a liability.

This isn’t the future of work.

It’s the consequence of forgetting that work was once a relationship — not a transaction.

And once trust is gone, no amount of security will bring it back.

If this resonated with you, you’re not alone. And if you saw yourself—or your company—in this story, that discomfort might be the point.