As some of you may know, my company laid off 17% of its workforce, or about 60 people. I was among them. I was told on Wednesday, packed my things, and left that same day
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"I made the case *for* layoffs as a necessary evil; it's part of our system, it's part of what makes the capitalist system so flexible in what it does. Though I am now a victim of that 'necessary evil,' I still stand by that sentiment."
This is precisely what's wrong with this country. Layoffs are necessary? From who's point of view?
Necessary from an economic point of view. It's how the market adjusts to different levels of labor supply and demand. Just like an employer hires people when they have work that needs to be done, so too they lay off people when there is not enough work to go around. I don't have a problem with that concept.
It is necessary evil, and evil it is.. it's a bad experience for the people who lose their jobs. No arguments there.
Well, yes, that IS how it works. I guess my real question would be: Why do we allow a handful of people at the summit of our economy to get away with forcing the rest of to pay the price when their system hits a rough spot?
I can't really look at it that way. I have a strong belief in not buying into a victim mentality; when I can avoid it I'm always happier and feel far more in control of my environment.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about your question is this: "why would I expect someone to pay me when I'm not working?"
The "not working" bit can be extended to say: why should I expect someone to pay me good money to do overly simplistic work? That was the situation I was faced with at my last company.
It's not that I'm happy to see those handful of people suffer no practical consequences for the mistakes they made. Pragmatically, I'm not sure what can be done about it. For one, I'm not sure that I would have behaved any differently if I were in their shoes (and I am not sure that most average people would either). For another, I think that the pursuit of some sort of justice would be long, painful, and not really worth the price. What would we extract from them? Prison time? Demotion? Fines?
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This is precisely what's wrong with this country. Layoffs are necessary? From who's point of view?
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It is necessary evil, and evil it is.. it's a bad experience for the people who lose their jobs. No arguments there.
Reply
Reply
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about your question is this: "why would I expect someone to pay me when I'm not working?"
The "not working" bit can be extended to say: why should I expect someone to pay me good money to do overly simplistic work? That was the situation I was faced with at my last company.
It's not that I'm happy to see those handful of people suffer no practical consequences for the mistakes they made. Pragmatically, I'm not sure what can be done about it. For one, I'm not sure that I would have behaved any differently if I were in their shoes (and I am not sure that most average people would either). For another, I think that the pursuit of some sort of justice would be long, painful, and not really worth the price. What would we extract from them? Prison time? Demotion? Fines?
Reply
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