Others have already written in their comments on this post about how silly the idea of loyalty to a company is.
I think all I'll add to that is that I have ended up at the point where I doubt I'll ever give my "best" work to an employer again - I'm just there to put the JIRA tickets in the bag, so to speak.
My best work is now exclusively reserved for things in my free time that I have a personal interest in.
> What does loyalty have to do with the quality of your work?
For me? Everything
Maybe this won't be the case anymore when I get assigned to the severed floor, but until then...
> but my “best” work tends to come out unpredictably when the conditions are right
I get this, but the moment this "feeling" comes up during my 9-5 I nip it in the bud
> I get this, but the moment this "feeling" comes up during my 9-5 I nip it in the bud
I hear this sentiment a lot, and after 25 years in the software industry I have a visceral understanding of why it is the appropriate response in certain environments/situations. On the other hand, I've been in situations where going above and beyond has been well rewarded (both monetarily and in terms of work satisfaction).
To me this has to be contextual to a specific job/team/project or you risk cutting off your nose to spite your face. Doing the bare minimum is a necessary defense mechanism in a toxic environment—and no judgement on anyone doing what they have to do to survive—but the flip side of this attitude is it disqualifies you from the best, most satisfying teams to work on.
> but the flip side of this attitude is it disqualifies you from the best, most satisfying teams to work on
Speaking for myself, I'm just not interested in this anymore - work is just a single (and not even particularly important) part of a much more vast and rich life I have now
There will also never be anything the best and brightest teams will be working on that will be even half as interesting, engaging or satisfying as the projects I work on in my own time
Switch flip after I was unceremoniously laid off from a Series C (now D) company (along with 25% of my fellow comrade workers) that I went many extra miles, many times, to stop from going under between Seed - Series C.
I'm still what people refer to as a "10xer" (though I don't like this term) when it comes to my own projects[1], but at this point if an employer wants this kind of quality from me, they'd need to x10 whatever initial salary offer they present me with.
Besides my own software projects, I now put the extra brain power into music, dance, videography, editing etc., and life is good.
What does loyalty have to do with the quality of your work?
I’m all for boundaries by the way, not overworking etc, but my “best” work tends to come out unpredictably when the conditions are right. The people and project matter, but the fact that employment is transactional doesn’t really factor in for me.