Quote:
Originally Posted by doodlemagic
you need to specify more what your talking about. how a company as a whole treats employees, how management treats employees or just overwall how everyone treats each other? any specific industry you notice this in?
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I've worked in several different American states — in academia, for a Fortune 100 company, for a national retailer, a non-profit corporation, and for a regional business. I also freelanced for a long time, so I've been privy to the ins-and-outs of a lot of businesses where I wasn't a permanent employee. The fear and negativity that permeates businesses in the U.S. today is across industries and is also seen just as prevalently, if not
more, in academia and other non-profits. Because when people are worried about their money, the first thing they do is stop donating it.
Everything is fine when money is rolling in. Everybody is in growth mode. Management is upbeat. People are being hired and getting regular salary increases. There is constant talk about how we're a family and we have shared goals and we're an asset to our community and our nation. People are working hard with the knowledge that their efforts will be rewarded. What's not to like?
Then, when the bad times hit — which at one time were isolated incidents of business failure mainly due to mismanagement — the spirit plummets. The problem is, this nation has been experiencing nearly two decades of massive bad times. It started when Wall Street (with acquiescence from the government) made it acceptable for corporate boards to constantly dismantle their own companies for quick profit. Instead of STABILITY being valued in the economy, quick profits from surges in stock prices became the goal. Most lower-level employees didn't really even understand what was going on in the board rooms. The general media ignored the story because it was too complicated to explain. The business press didn't see any harm in it and they are really just mouthpieces for Corporate America anyway, so they weren't about to sound an alarm.
The problems was, this need to satisfy Wall Street's addiction to these quick profits eventually had a tipping point. When there was no longer anything extraneous to divest, they started to divest things that were turning healthy profits. This merry-go-round of corporations buying and selling each other their assets to drive up stock prices became THE Way the rich get richer in the US and abroad. Did your grandparents worry about corporate raiders and leveraged buy-outs? Did your father's successful, profit-making employer put itself up for sale to the highest bidder? And if the buyer is German or Japanese and the ownership money is now going to Europe or Asia, do you think our government cares?
As long as the money is flowing TOWARD the already richest among us, and away from people who have no voice, we have a Federal Reserve, a Treasury, a Justice Department, a Commerce Department, a World Bank, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and even the majority in our Congress who will say, "No problemo."
Why do you think every time you check into a hotel it has a different owner from the last time you were there? Why do decades-long employees who lost their jobs when Westinghouse Defense Systems disappeared get their pension checks from CBS? Why do you think only one major department store chain and a few lesser chains now serve the entire nation? Why do places like Circuit City, Woolworth's, G.C. Murphy, Osco Drug, Pantry Pride — stores that sold things people need all over the country — disappear? Do you even know who owns Sears this week? It ain't Roebuck. There's only room for one or two big kahunas and if you're not it ...
kaput.
Workers, from the lowest level to middle management, are merely pawns in this hideous game of "we don't
make anything ... except profits for stockholders." They know they are being used. They know ownership doesn't give a fig about them. They can't plan ahead for the future. They know they may be unemployable once they are in their fifties. They have good benefits one year and the next year ... nothing.
I know smart, capable people who have been working for 20 years and have NEVER had a job they felt was stable. How can you celebrate your life and feel you're the reliable the support of a family when you're looking over your shoulder every day of your life? How many Americans have found out they were laid off days before Christmas? Millions.
No, it's not
everywhere. There are exceptions. Companies that really DO make something. Companies that are satisfied with steady profits and don't chase the big stock price spike. But I agree with that assessment of it being no more than 30% of today's employers. Most of the big corporations, our nation's largest employers. are in this up to their necks. They abuse workers with impunity and constantly chase after every government subsidy they can get their greedy hands on. And where is the money coming from for government subsidies? Not CORPORATE tax payers ... they have entire offices of lawyers looking for tax
breaks for them. It's the little guy who pays. The little guy who might
own his or her house but now cannot even afford to pay the property taxes and utilities. The little guy who will be the first one in the unemployment line the next time the you-know-what hit the fan at his or her place of work.