LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman on the biggest lie employers tell employees

In his new book The Alliance, Reid Hoffman argues that the relationship between employers and employees is built on "a dishonest conversation."
Hoffman would know. As co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, he sits atop the largest, most data-rich hiring platform the world has ever seen. As a venture capitalist who made early investments in everything from Facebook to Airbnb, he's helped some of the era's most successful companies grow.
And now he wants both workers and employers to begin having honest conversations with each other — conversations that admit employment isn't for life, that loyalty only lasts so long as it coincides with self-interest, and that the relationship doesn't have to end when the worker leaves.

1) The biggest lie that employers tell employees

"The biggest lie is that the employment relationship is like family," Hoffman says.
He goes on to describe two versions of the lie. "One is where the employer is actually deluding themselves." Employers may want to believe their workplace really is like a family, and, in that moment, they may convince themselves it actually is like a family.
The other version of the lie comes because the employer wants the employee to believe it. "They really want the employee to be loyal to the company," Hoffman continues. "That's when it gets deceptive."
But the employer-employee relationship isn't like a family. "You don't fire your kid because of bad grades," Hoffman says.