Comments on: The Recessionary Workplace: More Productive and Higher Paying

By: mathieu

mathieu — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:10:12 +0000

It is called fear. I cant blv this is framed as a good thing. if anything, this type of thinking got us into all this trouble in the first place. what about as many pl working at decent hours and at a decent wage as possible? novel concept.

By: Swordsman

Swordsman — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:04:43 +0000

They certainly did between 2000 adn 2008.

By: Aineye Creative

Aineye Creative — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:28:04 +0000

Perhaps it is the principle behind the conjecture that the rich get rich and the poor get poorer.

By: Michael Wells

Michael Wells — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:06:00 +0000

Wendy’s original post was also about wages. I didn’t ask, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my one son in law, now doing two jobs, got a “raise” and promotion. Not a bad thing as my daughter, his wife, got laid off last month.

I don’t know about the other one, his transfer was more lateral but could have included a raise of some kind. He’s mostly talked about being glad he was retained, although as Wendy suggests, he’s also looking elsewhere.

By: KIRSTI

KIRSTI — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:31:17 +0000

I think there is also a bit of a double bind at work here = people get laid off so there is some thought that the remaining survivors will be more ‘creative’ as they try to do two jobs at once – completing denying the depression that survivors face…. so while necessity may be the mother of invention, you have to be feeling positive to see the creative jewels laid out before you….. and then there is the counter argument of course, that the more creative you are, the more likely you are to retain your job in the first place, with the very real caveat that people value creativity. Unfortunately, in my experience, it has been the creative ones cut first, because in a downtown the last thing corporate needs is for someone to ask why? or even why not?

By: Swordsman

Swordsman — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:31:00 +0000

Yes, I agree, why is productivity going up a shock? Fewer workers means the remaining workers are busting their butts.

And somehow, I can’t view this as a good thing, nor sustainable. We were already working the most hours in the world.

When do people just snap? And does anyone care?

By: Michael Wells

Michael Wells — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:20:26 +0000

My simple understanding of productivity is to divide operating income by number of employees. A dramatic reduction of number of employees increases productivity, a dramatic reduction in income decreases it. So employees are decreasing 3.1% faster than income.

The problem is the tendency to eliminate employees that are working on future innovations or sources of productivity. Some companies are cutting R&D to help their immediate bottom line. This is an opportunity for companies that can afford it to invest while the competition cuts back, positioning them to take advantage of the eventual recovery. Apple may come out of this stronger?

I’ve seen this in my own family. One son-in-law was laid off, then hired back to do what were previously two jobs, probably a productivity increase. Another son-in-law had his 100-person division eliminated, he was one of a dozen who were kept and moved to other projects. If the old division would have created new products, this may have been short sighted.

By: SM2

SM2 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:05:18 +0000

I’ve heard of company workers who have requested pay cuts in order to maintain the jobs of support staff. While this could be seen as being altruistic, the bottom line is that without available support staff, those remaining workers would have to pick up (even more of) the slack. A local hospital resorted to pay cuts, and a nurse commented to me that she was thrilled, because the slight pay cut meant that her aides and housekeepers (and other low wage employees) would stay. The hospital had already seen frontline staff cuts- so she was already carrying a greater patient load. The last thing she needed was to start mopping the floors and cleaning rooms on top of her excessive patient load.

Productivity may have increased, but at what price and for how long can this be sustained?

By: Wendy

Wendy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:41:00 +0000

Just found some Canadian data on this from the Conference Board of Canada:

“In February, the 3.9 per cent increase in average hourly wages far outstripped the meagre 1.1 per cent rise in inflation.”

from: http://sso.conferenceboard.ca/e-Library/LayoutAbstract.asp?DID=2970