Companies have discovered (or maybe planned) that they can run with far fewer employees as long as the fear of losing their jobs keeps the remaining employees working 2 or 3 or 5 times as hard as they did before. I wrote about the stress of this situation for the remaining employees here and I can tell you first hand it is very real. But corporations are not concerned about the stress their employees are under because it is money in the bank for them.
Most companies have begun to recover from the worst part of the recession but they haven't hired back employees. In fact they won't until they are forced to. The force that will make that happen will not be government related. We will also soon see more people fired for lashing out at their supervisors. Other good employees will finally get the the breaking point and their productivity will decline. There will soon be a large increase in stress related illness, death and suicides. Some of those suicides will include office shootings and other tragic events.
When employees are dead or hospitalized, profits will suffer. Then - possibly - corporations will be forced to hire a few more people. In the meantime you will find businesses supporting policies that keep the recession going. Fear is not only a great motivator, but also very profitable.
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Of course you know my history on this subject. Expected to fill in for 2, maybe 3 different shifts, working over 48 hrs a week all while having benefits taken away and work load increased, Absolutely no consideration for my 13 years of service and even the very real threat of being laid off because I'm the highest paid employee in my department.
Imagine how much they saved on just your efforts. Company wide that is HUGE cost savings - and yet the work got done.
I think I'm still feeling the effects of that stress level.
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