The last couple of years have been a golden era for employers—they’ve found that they can hire whom they want at lower wages, and that it’s easier to retain folks without having to boost salaries. But at some point companies that want to grow will have to break down and hire new people, or turn part-timers into full-timers, or put contractors on the payroll. Many employers are treating existing and potential employees as if they’re desperate for work. And plenty of Americans are.
~ Daniel Gross Newsweek Online Article, August 15th 2010
My former employer mailed me a Happy Birthday card. Key word is “Former”!! My birthday was last week and they laid me off a week before Thanksgiving. The card came from some woman with some high title at corporate headquarters. I’ve never heard of her before and I’ve never seen her a day in my life. I guess someone put the card on her desk and she signed it before she went to lunch.
This was my second time getting laid off. I’ll be honest: it sucks!! Getting laid off is like a girlfriend breaking up with you for no apparent reason. One day she just says I don’t think “we’re” working. You ask what’s wrong but she can’t tell you. In corporate speak, you have become a financial drag on the company. I was laid off in the 4th Quarter so they were trying to get us off the books for this year. Not since the slave trade have I seen people moved like numbers. The first time I was laid off, people cried and visually looked sad. This time – Nothing! Three years on the job and all you get is a boxed lunch to go.
So I was shocked when I received a birthday card giving me well wishes. Why would they take the time to do this? This is an example of what modern society has become. A “denial of employee angst”! Employees’ are going to work every day wondering whether it will be their last. They are holding on to jobs they can’t stand because the alternative is unemployment. They also are overworked and underpaid. Compared to other countries we work like rented mules. And don’t get me started on how much management makes compared to everyone else. The card represented denial by telling me “everything is alright.” Don’t worry about being unemployed before Christmas! Don’t even worry about getting ready to lose your medical benefits. This is business as usual. And in the end, everything is going to be alright!!!
With jobs going overseas and a loss of manufacturing we’re in trouble. Other countries are surpassing us in education, green energy and transportation. In our quest to make it cheaper and faster we are destroying the employee class. We are also giving up jobs to people in foreign countries. I’m not mad at them because I know they need to work. But I’m tired of the language barrier I have to face when calling about my credit card. And that brings up another point, why does someone in India have my credit card information. Isn’t this a security issue?? If you thought you could graduate from high school and work at the plant, scrap that! If you thought you could work for the same company for 30 plus years, don’t plan on it! We can’t create jobs in America because we are giving them away!!!
I lost my job because the process we worked on became automated. A fancy way of saying we can do the work of 6 people with just 2. I always laugh at the people that are too naïve to believe they can’t get canned. I have two degrees and that doesn’t mean anything. In the future, college students might have to adjust their career choice in order to work. It would be sad to give up a degree in directing movies so you could be an accountant but what can you do? Are we headed for a future of all business degrees and jobs in healthcare and fast food? People are getting sick and we don’t really cure them. We just kind of keep them moving along. And the drive thru at McDonalds is packed every day. America: Where people get sick and eat!!! Don’t be surprised if McDonalds has a robot working at the drive thru in a few years.
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