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The first wave of layoffs devastated the textile manufacturing base of our region and the second is tearing apart the financial services infrastructure of Charlotte's economy. That's just the very tip of the iceberg.

We are not only experiencing a global economic meltdown, but the dawn of a new reality in the way employees relate to organizations. Like it or not -- and most of us find a lot not to like -- we are embarking upon a new psychological employment contract where people are seen as costs to be reduced and not long-term assets to be nurtured and developed over a career.

In my opinion, the shift is irrevocable, and both employees and organizations need to make some painful, against-the-grain adjustments in our past, culturally ingrained commandments. Here are 10 old “commandments” and 10 reframed versions for the new reality:

1. Thou shalt be paternalistic to thy employees. To ensure a dependable work force, employers should have a strategy to provide as many services and programs as possible that tie the employees' sense of purpose and social identity to the organization.

Reframed: Thou shalt not place thy social and emotional eggs in the organizational basket. It shalt get dropped and thine eggs shalt be broken.

Paternalism sends the wrong message. It leads to unhealthy dependency and when, inevitably, downsizing happens, employees who overly rely on their organization for social and emotional support are set up for layoff survivor sickness.

2.Thou shalt trust that the organization will take care of you. Loyal employees trust that the organization will take care of them if they meet performance standards.

Reframed: Thou shalt take care of thyself. By now employees should know that it is impossible for organizations to control conditions so that they will have the necessary resources to take care of their employees over the long term. 

3. Thou shalt not look for another job while still employed. Loyal employees don't look for jobs while still employed.

Reframed: Thou shalt continually network and keep thy skills marketable. In the new reality, everyone, including the manager, is encouraged to continually cultivate outside options. External networking and keeping skills relevant to the needs of the marketplace are not indexes of disloyalty but of common sense.

4. Thou shalt make employees dependent on thy organization. In order to control and direct employees, managers need to structure a long-term, dependency relationship.

Reframed: Thou shalt not be seduced into dependence. People who remain with organizations because they choose to be there, rather than because they have to be there, are much more creative, productive and less susceptible to survivor symptoms. 

5. Thou shalt motivate thy employees by bestowing rewards and delivering punishments. Managers provide external motivation by manipulating rewards and punishment.

Reframed: Thou shalt provide an environment that lets thy employees motivate themselves. Employees are capable of self-motivation and this internal motivation is much more powerful than the externally imposed variety. In the new reality, the primary motivators are interesting work and the acquisition of valuable skills. 

6. Thou must always be tough and brutally honest. Managers must be tough-minded, objective, brutally honest and never let feelings and emotions distract them from getting the job done. "Touchy feely" management does not work in the real world.

Reframed: Thou shalt be empathetic and caringly candid. Feelings and emotions are the currency of the realm when employees are gridlocked by fear, anxiety and depression. That's the real real world. Truth-telling is mandatory but honesty should not be brutal. Caring candor is helpful; brutal honesty is destructive.

7. Thou shalt promise a long-term employment relationship. Employees need the promise of a long-term, stable employment relationship. Organizations provided it once, and they will be able to provide it again.

Reframed: Thou shalt not expect long-term, uninterrupted employment with a single organization. The last thing employees need is a promise that things will return to normal. It is a promise that employers won't be able to keep and when, inevitably, it is violated, management's credibility will suffer. 

8. Thou shalt covet permanent, long-term employees. Permanent full-time employees are the glue that holds organizations together.

Reframed: Thou shalt not keep the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Like it or not, in the new reality all employees are "temps." We need to find new glue.

That doesn't mean that employees won't stay for a long time. When employers provide good work and empowering leadership, talented employees will stay for the right reasons and they will tend to stay for as long as those two conditions are met. It is much more hazardous to organizational health when employees stay for the wrong reasons: because they are afraid to leave and have no marketable external skills.

9. Thou shalt not allow employees to whine and complain. Whining and complaining is bad and managers need to stop it.

Reframed: Thou shalt facilitate employee venting. "Whining" and "complaining" are prejudicial words and only serve to reinforce norms that preclude employees from the crucial task of externalizing their disabling feelings. Properly facilitated, venting repressed feelings is an exceptionally powerful managerial tool.

10. Thou shalt be in control at all times. In times of organizational trauma and turmoil, it is even more important that those in authority maintain an aura of stern unflappability.

Reframed: Thou shalt be freed by unmasking thine own vulnerability. In order to be relevant to the needs of their employees and reduce their own stress, managers give themselves permission to "own" and express their personal vulnerability. That reaffirms their humanity and frees up their ability to form authentic, empathetic relationships with their employees.

David Noer (dnoer@elon.edu) is the Frank S. Holt Jr. Professor of Business Leadership at Elon University and an honorary senior fellow at Greensboro's Center for Creative Leadership. He writes a monthly column for the News & Record on leadership, organizational behavior and community issues.