These incidents are not anomalies. They reflect a broader pattern in which subjective judgments of loyalty, what I have come to call “personal barometers,” exist. For example, colleague to colleague, “Janet loves this company, she’s been here 20 years” may be a consensus view, yet it is not accompanied by objective, consistent, and transparent measures.
Personnel history blind spots
Organizations have long operated under the belief that loyalty, once demonstrated, becomes a durable shield against insider risk. Extended tenure is rewarded with escalating access privileges, high performers are granted broader system rights without commensurate behavioral review, and verbal affirmations of commitment are taken at face value. Yet time and again patterns repeat.
What begins as mutual confidence weakens not through dramatic betrayal but through subtle realignments in personal commitment. An employee who once identified strongly with the mission may begin to feel undervalued, overlooked for advancement, or weighed down by outside pressures. The organization, relying on its subjective gauge of past performance, fails to notice the change until the cow has bolted from the barn.
