Extreme Loyalty - Noble or Pathetic?

   As the threat of a work stoppage looms at my place of employment, I've been giving an increased amount of thought to this question.

   If, in fact, the union goes out on strike, the rest of us are expected by management to work 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week until the strike ends.

   To someone like me, who has been in the workforce right around 10 years, this is total lunacy. Why the hell anyone would actually agree to do this is beyond me.

   But to most of the people I work with, who have been with the company at least 20 years, this is part of the deal. We get no bonuses, no overtime pay, no comp time for working those slave hours - we get to keep our jobs.

   In fact, if you don't report to your strike duty assignment, you will be let go.

   I think the mentality my colleagues have in this regard is directly related to two factors - they have worked all their career (effectively if not literally in all cases) at one place. They have relatively healthy pensions waiting for them when they finish up their careers in the next several years. And they're not getting any younger, so they are not interested in looking elsewhere for work. So they take what they have and endure.

   People of my general age entered the workforce knowing we had to take care of ourselves. You fatten up your 401(k) early and often and know that no job is secure - we've all been laid off at one point or another. We expect companies to have no loyalty for us so we have none back. You tell me to work 12 hour shift, 7 days a week in some God forsaken town, I tell you to fly a kite!

   So getting back to my original question - I think the real answer is somewhere in between. I think the answer is more like "regrettably understandable."