Of course, management encouraged this confusion with its rhetoric of corporate paternity and its declaration of the kind of loyalty otherwise reserved for blood relations. But they were all mistaken. This wasn't a family. This was a business. The irony was, they'd leave anyway.
Nothing telegraphs the impending death-spiral of a business like a layoff.
And in the land where the cycle from Next Big Thing to yesterday's news was ever tightening, the engineering hot rods had become terrifyingly light on their feet. They often wouldn't bother to announce their departure. A signing bonus, double salary and a fresh NDA would galvanize an exit in a way that left no room for reflection, conscience or goodbye. Never mind loyalty. Once the guru's True Believer spell was broken, loyalty became a hypothetical construct, an irrational number.