This year I experienced being sacked, made redundant. I knew consutants/contractors like me will find it hard going this year so late last year I took an offer to work as an employee. After coming from Portugal to give my paper, it was one of exhiliration, unexpectedly we won the best paper award. God continues to surprize me with his grace. Then a day after I went back to work - I was one of those retrenched. Such is life, so says Ned Kelly.
A long time ago I worked for HP here. Back in those days, HP would not sack people, instead, they will take a pay cut and it starts from the CEO all the way down to the middle managers. I am sure it is different now since the merger with Compaq but in those days while one of the founders was alive, they knew that sacking people for a big company was not necessary, all they had to do was to share their profit and go with a bit less. This is what Holden (GM) here is going to do. Read it here. So God bless them.
Big companies really do not need to sack people. They just don't want to slash their profits and share it with their employees. Sacking people is actually a reflection of management failure. It does not have to be the first option when the market gets bad. Sacking people for bad working behaviour is fine but sacking people simply because your profit will be affected if you dont is just plain selfish.
11 comments:
Dear Kuya,
Your sack is your employer's loss. They like to dress up their profits before people exercise as "cost-cutting." Sometime, it's not like they're making any losses. But in anticipation of lower profits in the coming months or years, they are bent on "restructuring" and what-have-you. I wonder how this will somehow improve on their ROI (return on investment)? Ironically, short-term profit trumps long-term planning. They see the long-term alright, but choose to stretch the short-term as long as it is possible. Talk about "objectivity."
Hello there, my Lutheran islander and programmer,
You wouldn't happen to have some face-recognition computer-code stashed anywhere, by any chance, would You? :-\
AS.
Yes indeed this is short sightedness. They give us a package and then they start re-hiring and those that got sent off are eligible to apply after 6 months. So did they really save money? Nope.
LPC
Lucian,
My EO friend, I have worked with voice recognition but it does not work as it should.
How about some palm reading software? I don't believe in it but that might be a business idea, no?
LOL.
LPC
Lito,
Sad to hear of your predicament.
If I remember rightly, you were doing a PhD, so this will give you more time to work on that, no?
Not to mention reading Sasse :0)
Still, I hope something comes up soon.
MH
Pr. M,
I found work last 2 weeks ago even though only temporary (6 months). Thank you for your concern.
I did get time to move the thesis forward but the way my professor is going about it, I no longer have any target date for completion, he keeps moving the goal posts! I think he wants to win the Nobel prize, frankly, I am not interested.
LPC
Judas Lito, reminds me of my last year of teaching. One of the goals I was given was to bring the university wider recognition in the field by publishing and presenting papers. I made one such presentation right after being informed of the sack.
As you know the line-up for major conventions is determined months in advance. So I made my last presentations as, if German protocol were observed, as "Herr Doktor" but not "Herr Professor Doktor"!
Well, at least the last of them gave me a great trip to Miami, and not having to spend my time both advancing one institution while "networking" to find a better job at a better institution, I could hang with the Cubans and speak in Spanish all day!
Hell, if I could have found someone to be me and give my paper, I'd have skipped that too!
P.E.
As you know the line-up for major conventions is determined months in advance
I feel ya. Such is life's ironies no? Well at least P.E. the uni is not multi-billion dollar orgs like the one that just retrenched me. The company I worked for is a $5B company.
What they did was poetic. Up until Christmas 2008, I would attend company meetings and the Aussie CEO would stand up and re-assure us saying - we have money, we are liquid, we do not have debts, and we have cash.
Then a month later, they do this sort of thing - so i say - BS.
LPC
Lito,
Hang in there, my friend. Something good will come your way.
The Lord never forgets His people.
Well, I say BS too! Steve's right though, bottom line (so to speak!)
SM/PE,
Thanks for the encouragement. I found temporary work hopefully things change in 6 months time when my contract finishes.
Correct, these maneuvering is decind to make the bottom line look good, for a while.
LPC
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