Today was a Dark Monday -- not because of weather or any celestial event. The company let three people go today. One of our sister companies -- owned by the same conglomerate -- laid off a half a dozen good employees.Apparently the new term is "rightsizing". I'm certain it was anything but right for the folks who were shown the door after ten plus years of service. They did nothing wrong, but in today's environment that's immaterial since there is no longer any such thing as "job security". In fact, that quaint old notion should probably be removed from the American lexicon. It disappeared by the end of the 70s if I'm not mistaken.
Unfortunately, the corporations have to bend in order to avoid being broken by the current economic landscape. In the case of my employer, it means cutting off fingers to save the hand. In my case, I'm holding out hope that I may be one of the prehensile thumbs that they just can't grasp the business without.
1 comment:
Fired, or "let go of" until business picks up again. Then they´ll try to re-hire those folks, but at thirty-five hours a week so that the company won´t have to pay health insurance or other benefits. Hmmm.
I´m all for competition and worker productivity, but it seems that we are shooting ourselves in the feet (or fingers, as SavageWit put it) when we let go of good workers during a small downturn. A well run business shouldn´t have downturns if they have good management and budget properly. And even if they don´t (budget properly), there should be SOME type of worker´s protection, and especially for workers who have been there for more than ten years.
As some of you may know, I reside in Hamburg, Germany. Germany, France - well, Europe, actually, is seen as rather non-competetive is comparison to the USA. That´s not exactly true, though they do do things a bit differently here. Workers are given a contract for their employ, and that contract ends when you quit or the company folds. If the company folds, the government picks up the tab for your pay. Workers get an average of four to six weeks of paid vacation per year. Women get a year off for maternity leave with a GUARANTEE that they can come back to their job. Men can take up to three months for the same! A large portion of both leaves are paid for, by law.
My point is that you must treat workers with respect and purpose. Europe competes just fine with the rest of the world even though they spend a lot more on their workers. All that they have to show for their investment are content workers with fierce loyalty and purpose in life.
If we want to be the number one country in the world, we should better start acting like it with our children and our workers!
KaiserMichi
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