It is a clich to say that fewer and fewer people are looking to make their careers at a single organization and to Retire with the gold watch.

Its going to be commonplace for people to incessantly company-jump and to save their dollars or Euros for their own Rolexes.

This lack of loyalty, first on the part of corporations, which downsize and outsource and enlarge jobs beyond the bursting point with impunity; and on the part of paranoid personnel, should create a vacuum of leadership, especially at the top of major companies.

In the old days, pre-2001, many of the top jobs went to people that rose through the ranks.

Just take a look at Southwest Airlines, where all senior officers are former customer service people, flight personnel, baggage handlers, and the like. Southwest doesnt have to have Pioneer Days and other alumni events because many of its people are still aboard.

Most of those Southwest pioneers, by the way, qualified for stock options and some are quite wealthy as a result, so even with the price of gold being north of $600 an ounce, they can definitely buy their own watches.

But will upstarts, as Southwest was, be able to attract and keep people long enough transform them into tomorrows leaders, in light of todays widespread cynicism?

There is a huge hidden cost companies will be paying for in years to come because of their lack of loyalty to workers. Though todays bottom lines seem fatter, tomorrows may be thinner, and its definitely going to be lonelier at the top!