Does upper mgmt feel we are morons/what is happening?

Uh, your advice is fine. I object to the bickering, that's all.

Me too -love the "off the record" that is always were you get the goods. I always remind people in my industry that this goes on so to always work to your full potential and keep a good attitude no matter what. If I was a more petty person, I could have screwed this guy - and believe me the thought did cross my mind.

Your 'managers' don't care whether you are morons or not. Your managers only care about looking good to those further up the slippery pole. You, your life and aspirations, are trivial to both - I honestly believe that if your employer was legally able to kill you and sell your cadavar by the kilo for pet-food, they would.

The problem is this. Up to the 'crash' (big point here, it isn't really a crash if you can see it coming, and they all did) this was the best position for a manager:

The bigger the headcount for my dept/unit, the better off I am.

Now it is:

The smaller the headcount for my dept/unit, the better off I am.

Have a 1 minute cost meeting where you say "Lets fire the X% of our most unproductive employees to scare the **** out of the rest and cut everybody elses hours by 5 hours a week".

Then add,

"The sooner the better."

The degree of cynicism and resentment expressed in some of these posts is quite interesting.

With rare exception, the members of any company's senior management have come up through the ranks - if not at the company in question, then at others in their career history.

Chances are pretty good that they, as common workers, didn't idolize their senior managers, and engaged in any number of bitch sessions about what a-holes they were.

Something led them to their own position in senior management though.

The bitter will, in a facile fashion, attribute their rise to their ability to "play the game," "stab others in the back," and "kiss ass," but this is generalizing and even stereotyping in a way many would not tolerate if the subject were other than corporate leaders.

For some of them, it was the ability to relate to other people, to communicate clearly, find ways to align interests, and maintain a positive outlook that "assumed positive intent," rather than always adopting belligerent; defensive postures.

Again, there is absolutely no shortage of venal narcissists in the senior ranks of American corporations, because many companies, foolishly, reward such behavior. Once they do though, such companies are not long for the business world.

On the other hand there are many very successful companies in the US which are run by smart and decent people who do care about the workers as well as profits.

Unfortunately, a company is not a social institution (particularly if it is publically traded) and without profits there is no company, no jobs, and no employees.

A CEO may be considered wonderful by employees if he refuses to downsize in the face of increasing costs and diminishing returns, but he is a lousy CEO and, ultimately, no friend to the majority of workers.

As many, if not more, stupid decisions and profit-killing blunders are made by managers who refuse to confront and deal with poor performers. The notion that they are all souless ladder climbers willing to throw anyone and all into the dustpin for the sake of their personal careers, is simply nonsense.

To be certain, such miscreants exist, but there are far more who allow bums to continue to screw up at their jobs because they don't have the stones to deal with them.

You are mistaken if you believe that this type is not a foe of the worker.

Carrying bums because you find it unpleasent to confront them results in demotivation of your superior employees, and risks the viability of the company that employs everyone.

No manager can sustain a successful career without a team of workers who make things happen and get the job done. (There are short term methods a weasel can employ to get ahead, but they eventually catch up with him or her.) To build such a team the manager must be discerning and focused, but he or she must also be supportive and motivational.

Praise is like a precious gem. Flood the market with it and it rapidly loses its value. Praising an employee for doing the bare minimum is stupid, but almost every employee at one time or another does something extra and a good manager is looking for these moments and rewarding them. If you have an employee who never does anything to deserve praise - get rid of him or her.

Share the credit and share the wealth.

I know many managers (and many in very senior spots) who feel compelled to bad-mouth their employees in the hope that it renders them so much more heroic in their efforts for the absence of support.

When I hear such nonsense, my response is always:

"If you're people are so inept, coach them or replace them. Either you are bad-mouthing them because you have insecurity issues or you are a lousy manager."

We spend such a huge portion of our lives at our jobs, it is no wonder that we tie our emotions up with them. It's easy to be frustrated, to feel betrayed, to even hate the organiztion that is ultimately responsible for maintaining the ours and our family's lifestyle. Like anything else though, if you find yourself way out of balance in terms of your emotions as they relate to your job, then you need to do one of two things:

1) Take a long hard look at yourself. Are you really contributing to the level at which you feel you should be rewarded? Do you reinforce the positive or feed the negative? Do your co-employees like you? If none of them do, the chances are pretty slim that you got a job with a company where everyone is an a-hole. Would you hire you if it was your money on the line? Self-examine with honesty.

2) Leave. You're not a slave or an indentured servant. You can and should leave a job you hate. If you don't like what your company is telling you to do, stop doing it and stop taking the money they give you to do it. If you're as good as you think you are you'll be able to get a job elsewhere.

Corporations are nothing more than the people who work for them. They are not supernatural entities. They are not Ghosts in The Machine. They are not even the playtoy/tool of the most assertive and brilliant of CEOs. If you hate Corporate America, then you hate a constructed image that doesn't really exist.

Things get done every day in America. Things we take for granted.Honestly, I find amazing that they do get done: We have 24/7 electricity, our buildings are not falling down around us, we have bread to buy whenever we want it etc etc etc.

Who do we have to thank for this miracle? Corporate America, but more importantly all of the millions of Americans who are part of Corporate America.

Driving it all, however, is profit: personal gain.

The people who make sure we all have electricity can and should take pride in the fact that they are helping society, but, despite the commercials of the electric companies, that's not why they are doing it. They are doing it so they can get a paycheck. Absolutely nothing wrong with that because personal interest is a far more reliable motivator than societal interest.

Much has been made about the Bush Administration's lack of humility, stubborness, and arrogance. Irrespective of whether or not this is accurate criticism, it's not a surprise that it should be considered. How many people today are willing to be part of a team, to sublimate their personal interests to the good of the whole - and therebye recognize personal gain?

Yes, yes our friends on the Left will respond: "Me of course! I'm all about community and spreading the wealth."

Really?

Are you living this principle while working for a Corporation?

2) Leave. - Like that is an option in the current economy. I have left companies when I do not feel as if the job/company was a good fit for me. I do like where I work now and what I do now.

But to tell some one to leave in the current economy is not logical. Unless some one could go without pay for quite possibly a year or longer. I have a good friend that is a recruiter and has been very successful at - I talked him and he said there is not one job out there - all the companies in this area and industry are laying off or have a hiring freeze.

I have respected and liked many of my senior managers. However, they most recently hired senior manager came from a company I used to work at - I believe as a result of his management and values, I ended up leaving. I foundly refer to him as the slasher. He goes and works at a company slashes things left and right (included things as small as free hot chocolate and plant service) and then leaves and does this elsewhere. As a result many of the quality employees leave and then when this tyrant leaves people go back.

Parkinson's Law
Prof. Cyril Northcote Parkinson


‘WORK EXPANDS SO AS TO FILL THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR ITS COMPLETION’


General recognition of this fact is shown in the proverbial phrase 'It is the busiest man who has time to spare.' Thus, an elderly lady of leisure can spend the entire day in writing and dispatching a postcard to her niece at Bognor Regis. An hour will be spent finding the postcard, another in hunting for spectacles, half an hour in a search for the address, an hour and a quarter in composition, and twenty minutes in deciding whether or not to take an umbrella when going to the pillar box in the next street. The total effort that would occupy a busy man for three minutes all told may in this fashion leave another person prostrate after a day of doubt, anxiety, and toil.

Pretty much they do in my opiniion. At least I was lead to believe that about by self by my employer.

Sorry to hear the bad news about your job but maybe it is good news since you will surely find a better work environment.

To be honest this is most likely temporary (until the economy starts tending back upward). Overall the work environment is a good work environment so I have no plans to leave. Also, there are no jobs currently as most companies have been laying off, not hiring. It is only recently that some of these things have been happening.

I think in economies like these we all have to grin and bare it a bit. We really don't have much choice. It is either that or not work. I think by handling things positively (if you are not laid off), when things turn around you will be rewarded by your company and recognized - when they are financially able to.

Linkat, You have the right attitude; I wish I had more people like you working as associates.

Thank you - it does s*ck, but you have a choice even deal with it or whine. And I can't stand whiners (I only whine on A2k in order to vent).

Rumor has it that layoffs are being delivered this week.

Newest rumor - layoffs delivered tomorrow.

That's another thing I found quite interesting; rumors spread like wildfire no matter which level of staff - even when the rumor is wrong.

Well in this case it was announced by the company that additional layoffs would occur first quarter of 2009. The only rumor is when it will actually occur (tomorrow would fall in nicely with what the company has done in the past) - they are nice enough to give a couple of months notice typically before the layoff is implemented. So you have more than a month to look for work.

Its been done. All the notifications went out this morning. All I can say is it was ugly.

I saw the VP go over to a peer's desk and he followed her to her office. I instantly felt ill and thought oh no - this must be it. Shortly afterwards some one confirmed that he had been laid off. After that any time some one walked by my heart started racing and I felt sick. A couple or hours later we were brought in a conference room and told all notices have been delivered (in other words we were all spared).

I have confirmation of 4 in my direct group with many others in groups I work directly with - it is very difficult to concentrate. We have a meeting this afternoon.

First off, I am not telling anyone to leave their job. I am simply pointing out that it is an option we all have available to us.

Secondly, it is entirely logical to suggest leaving a job that provides more harm than good for you.

Presumably, you can imagine a job where quitting would be your best option. I appreciate that this particular job is not one, and that you feel the need to blow off steam about what jackasses management can be, but ultimately, you do have control over whether or not your job grinds you into dust. This control can be taken by leaving or adjusting your attitude and behavior.

None of us are helpless cogs in a corporate machine, unless we allow ourselves to be.

"...it is very difficult to concentrate."

Amen.

Congratulations for making it through this wave. I certainly can't say for certain, but my bet is that quite a few of the people who were laid off were whiners. It is to your credit that you were not let go, because when lay off decisions are made, in almost all cases, either the first in or the worst leave first.

I don't mean to alarm you, but the chances are pretty good that there will be another wave of layoffs. Clearly your company is in trouble, or there would not have been a first wave. Senior management (rarely being the heartless bastards so many think they are) tend to initially underestimate the extend of down-sizing their company requires.

Understandably, they want to assure the "survivors," but at times like these there cannot be certainty of employment for any of us.

Not to say that another wave is guaranteed, but to underscore that the best way to avoid it if it does come is to keep on doing what you have done to avoid the first wave, and... to keep your feelers out.

Obviously this doesn't mean quitting, but it does mean that you should keep your options open and see what else is out there. Despite what your recruiter friend might suggests, there are companies hiring even in the worst of time.

You were absolutely correct when you wrote that if you do your job well in the tough times there is a very good chance that you will be rewarded when the times get better.

Good luck and good choices.

Even the big players are laying off a good percentage of their staff, and I often wonder how they are being informed about their layoff? It's not an easy task by any means, but some learn on the same day which is cruel and unusual punishment. Some companies who can afford it are providing several weeks to several months severance pay, but I'm afraid they will be in the minority in this economic downturn.

Just last month alone, our country lost some 20,000 jobs every week, and we can anticipate that to increase for some months to come.

What is happening to couples working for the same company are also being laid off at the same time; I'd hate to think what their future holds for them - especially if they have children.

No matter what the conditions, no matter what the political impetus, some people will suffer and might be considered "sacrifices."

Even the most liberal/socialist/progressive/communist government cannot absolutely eliminate suffering or absolutely assure security for all citizens.

Life has never created a system where every living being survived and thrived, and yet some of us think we can.

How ironic is it that the very same people who believe that ecological imperatives transcend those of a a single species: humanity, expect the people who govern human affairs to utterly ignore the laws of nature.

Finn, Those are givens, and understood by most people. It's obvious from the simple fact that the six billion humans on this planet, over 90 percent lives in poverty.