Imagine a company that has just invented a way to lower the cost of producing its product. It has two choices: keep the savings or share it with the customers. It may seem like the better choice from the company’s perspective is to keep the money. But keeping all the money sends two dangerous messages to the employees. The first is: watch out, you work for a place that will take everything it can get. The other message is: we value short-term gains over long-term goodwill. You might want to keep your résumé updated at that firm.
