by Ellen Kudlicki

Created on: May 01, 2008

Fifty years ago, a young person would train for a job. They would go to trade school or college or the military and learn a trade. They would work and gradually acquire the trappings of middle class lifestyles complete with family, home and white picket fence. In some cases, employees would stay in their jobs for most of their adult lives, retiring to a fat pension with a gold watch and the promise of a placid lifestyle.

Those days are gone. Industries such as steel manufacturing have gone away from our shores. Where entire towns relied on the income that filtered down from factory workers, we are left with ghost towns. Now the bywords for the business of business are "service Industry." It seems that Americans no longer make, invent or repair anything, so all we have are technicians and faceless voices on the cell phone that tell us to ship things, click things or stuff it. This is the world today's employees inhabit.

It's not the friendly world of known co-workers. All too often, large companies hire contract workers to avoid hits to the bottom line through 401K contributions and health insurance. So the landscape is uncertain which makes people unsure where to place their loyalty. And therein is the key problem with getting and keeping good employees. A good employee is like a spouse. You want to know that your spouse is honest, that they aren't sleeping with the guy next door. And you as an employer, want the same thing from your employees. But in this world you only get as good as you give, and frankly some employers have not been fair to those that they hire. Below are some ideas that you may want to embrace.

1. Be honest with your employees. Don't give them a rosy picture if things are truly bleak. Nothing hurts morale more than the rumor mill. And believe me, if you have seen it in an email or talked about it on the phone, someone knows. It is much better to address problems head on and prevent resentment and insecurity from festering.

2. Be loyal to your employees. When you are dealing with larger companies, mergers and the current bevy of corporate changes, do consider the needs of your employees. While some far away buyer may not care about the people in the building, the fact is that you have an ethical and moral duty to represent their needs as well as those of the company. It's good to be a company man or woman, but if you sell-out employees too often in the same industry, word gets around.

3. Don't tolerate jerks. There are lots of good people looking

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