Love your company. But don't be loyal.

You should adore your company.

You should love the mission, align with the values and feel proud to work there. You should respect management, dig your coworkers and believe you're part of something important. You should be planning to stay there for a long time.

But no matter what, you shouldn't be loyal.

Your company cannot be loyal to you

Even if your company cures cancer, protects the rainforest or builds lifesaving technology, the hard truth is that they MUST stay in business. A company cannot be allowed to fail.

And sometimes staying in business means doing terribly difficult things—like canceling projects, closing branches, or laying off wonderful people.

This isn't evil—it's literally the definition of business

Companies that can't make hard decisions usually cease to exist, whether by quick failure or slow death. Sometimes these hard decisions are nobody's fault. The worst day of my professional career was when I had to lay off half my team during COVID. The alternative was to let the company die and see everyone lose their jobs.

Bad things sometimes happen to great people

No matter how much you love your company, no matter how much you feel you should be loyal, you should constantly be thinking about what comes next. Take those recruiter calls. Keep your résumé up to date. Look at other opportunities.

Keep your options open.

You may have the greatest boss in the world.

You may have finally found a place that feels like home.

Just know that they can't be loyal to you.

Because companies have to stay in business. No matter what.

Give the company everything you have to give.

Except your loyalty.