The Young WIT Panel at WIT*e - from left: Marela Lucero, Visit Britain; Steven Gong, Wego; Brian Tan, Fairmont; and Eunice Tan, Abacus

Time compression is a term I often hear when trend-watchers talk about life today. It seems we have more and more to do in less and less time.

Well, the other day, I realised that just as time has become compressed, so has the idea of loyalty.

This thought occurred to me right after I had had the most delicious bowl of Hokkaido ramen ever – the noodles had just the right bite to it and the soup was rich and tasty, having been boiled in Black Pig stock.

After paying the bill, I was given a card. On it were three stamps. I had to collect a certain number more before I could have the next free bowl of ramen and I had to do this in two months.

This is nothing new – lots of stores do it – but this card had the words “Loyalty Customer Programme” written on it.

“Two months? That’s not loyalty, that’s frequency,” I said to the waitress who looked like she cared what I thought.

My friend promptly dragged me away before I could get into a debate on the difference between the two words, and the idea behind either.

It reminded me of the panel discussion we had at our WIT*e – Inspiration & Mentoring event last week when we gathered four young people to share their views on the industry and their ideas of employment.

One question pertained to loyalty. We wanted to know what the younger generation thought of loyalty to a company – is someone who stays with one company for 15 years loyal or lazy?

Someone actually shouted “stupid” from the floor, but we shall not go there.

Brian Tan, operations analyst at Fairmont Hotel, said, “I know people who have worked 20-25 years in a company but still remain extremely hardworking, fresh, adaptable and a joy to work with. At the same time, there are those who have worked less than five years but are already burnt out and tired. So I guess loyalty and laziness are not correlated to me.”

Steven Gong, director, business development at Wego, said, “If someone stayed in the same company for 15 years and has continuously developed and added value, that is a loyal employee. If someone stayed in the same company for 15 years to basically not develop professionally and be set in their 'comfort zone', that could be viewed as being lazy.”

Eunice Tan, marketing executive, corporate & marketing communication of Abacus International, added, “To me loyalty isn’t a measure of tenure of how long a person stays with the company, it’s essentially how committed the person is to the company.

“One who spends 15 years and does not value-add or perform to his/her best in the company doesn’t quite reflect his/her loyalty. But an individual who may spend just three to five years in the company and eventually move on to be advocates/ambassadors of the company, then that to me is being loyal.

“On the other side, a company needs to reciprocate loyalty as well – loyalty is not a one way thing.”

Eunice’s idea is that loyalty transcends the job and time.

I remember telling my team after I resigned from a company I had been for 15 years to be loyal to the new boss and they told me, “They have to earn my loyalty.”

So loyalty is non-transferable as well – unlike that card with the three stamps on it.

For the last word on loyalty, I will defer to my dog Dylan who the other day received an SMS from his groomer. It said, “Dear Dylan, I know you are probably having fun ball-tossing or doing whatever it is that makes you happy. But this is just a reminder for you to tell your owner that it’s time for your next haircut.”

Now that’s customer service worth being loyal to. Even my hairdresser doesn’t do that.