There’s an amazing amount of injustice in the employment world these days, so please pardon my impatience and dissatisfaction with the government and employers that are making so many bad decisions, and the lives of so many so difficult!
The welfare and well being of our children are at stake when over 23,000 teachers were given pink slips in California.  And the Golden State is not alone in this. Many school systems around the country can not afford to keep the same volume of teachers on their payrolls because of declining state and local budgets.  Fewer teachers mean more students per class, less individualized attention, and the decimation of music, arts and physical education programs.  In some cases it also means the outright closure of schools, forcing more overcrowding in the remaining classrooms.  Less instruction time equals lower test scores equals less money from the government.
And while the state of our healthcare system is being hotly debated, hospitals around the nation are being forced to fire nurses.  Corners are being cut that directly affect the quality of services.  Doctors, hospitals and insurance companies are all nickel and diming patients while staff cuts necessitate longer waits in emergency rooms, fewer overnight stays, and lousier overall care.
Auto and other industrial plants are closing, and manufacturing is becoming almost nonexistent in the US.  Despite innovations in many industries such as biotech and computer sciences, scores of companies continue to lay off large numbers of key personnel; loyal staff who have been with these firms for many years.  And lets not forget the state and city governments that force furlough days on workers in an effort to balance their inflated budgets.  Those who still have those jobs have seen their pay cut by about 6 to 20 percent.
This does not add up to economic stimulation!
Now, I don’t have the answers that will fix these problems!  But with unemployment rates ridiculously high, and those with jobs earning less, I know there are fewer dollars being spent, and that translates to reductions in the revenues generated from state and local taxes that fund many of the programs that have fallen victim to these cutbacks.   When do these cycles end?
Certainly one contribution to the fix is to reduce over-inflated government spending (state and federal), and another part of the answer lies in the creation of new jobs.  Most new jobs tend to originate in the entrepreneurial sector, but with start-up money hard to come by, many new business can’t afford to do the hiring that will help their businesses get off the ground.
And we can’t forget the disparity between the humongous salaries and bonuses of corporate executives, and the hourly wages of the office and line workers they employ.  If the salaries and bonuses of corporate executive were proportionately capped, there would be more dollars for the workers and administrators who’s sweat and effort made it possible for the bigwigs to achieve such fat pockets.
Frequently employers don’t fully consider the repercussions of staff layoffs.  When a business keeps their doors open but lets go of a large number of their workers, the company may save a few thousand dollars, but the loss of morale and emotional security experienced by those who remain is quite blatant.  Gone are many in the community that supported their efforts and who made their workdays bearable.
But more than the emotional strain is the added stress of more work being done by fewer employees.  Managers still expect the same levels of productivity and the work to be completed in a timely manner, but the tasks become more difficult and timelines become shorter because there are fewer people to accomplish the same number of tasks.
OK, it’s a given that sometimes life isn’t fair!  But if you’re an employer, making major decisions that effect not only those who are being laid off, but those who remain, it is in your best interests – it behooves you – to openly talk with personnel about key issues that affect productivity and performance.  You can’t just fire a significant number of employees and expect those who remain will automatically be able to handle deadlines and workloads.  It just doesn’t work that way!!  The people who remain will feel overworked, underappreciated and overwhelmed, leading to absenteeism, job dissatisfaction and eventually departure.  And when the remaining personnel are unhappy, more work goes undone, and your bottom line will really suffer.  What may have started out as a cost-cutting method to save money might cost you a lot more!
It’s time to see what can be done to reduce the number of insane clowns and eradicate these vicious cycles!
Got any ideas?  Please share them!
For tips and ideas on how to retain employees and morale, please visit:  hanklondon.com