My latest contribution to The Globe and Mail:
Canadians love to buy houses.
Not only does the rate of home ownership surpass that of the United States, Canada seems to have dodged the crisis that so vexes the U.S. Sales are up, and property values keep appreciating as U.S. prices have fallen 30 per cent or more.
As an investment, home ownership seems to match Canada’s national character: it’s responsible, practical and risk-averse.
Or at least it has been.
It’s hard to be creative when you’re worried about your company’s survival or your own job’s longevity.
Indeed, 24 percent of Canadian workers are worried about losing their jobs (according to an Ipsos Reid poll reported in the Globe and Mail).
“We’re seeing concerns throughout all levels of the organizational structure,” said JB Aloy, employee researcher at Ipsos. “From managers, to technical specialists, to workers on the floor, there is a great concern across all career streams about what this crisis means for their job.”
Although I couldn’t find a survey, I would have to guess an even larger percentage of American workers are worried about being laid off (especially given that health care comes with your job in that country).
The Employers Association of Charlotte, NC believes that virtually all 860 of their members are worried about employee morale and productivity during these uncertain times.
Keeping employees focused and positive as business falters and colleagues are laid off is a top challenge facing most companies.
When people are worried about losing their jobs, they monitor the news while at work, they skim job boards while on company time, and they huddle in groups fretting. None of this is good for productivity.
I worked at a dot com in 2000-2001 and remember the anxiety first hand. Once senior management stopped communicating, except to give us an excuse as to why paychecks were delayed, productivity all but stopped.
It’s really hard to be creative and solve problems when you don’t expect to have a job soon.
How has this economy affected your workplace? Or your employer’s workplace-related decisions?
