'Tis the season to be jolly!

Fa la la la la, la la la laaaa!

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!

Let's spread that Christmas cheer! It's the season of giving, and more and more companies find that employees love the gift of time off... permanently!

That's a pretty lame way to start your holidays. Well, the bright side is you get plenty of game time after you get that Wii this Christmas.

The Ford buyout guys got a pretty good deal, it would suck to be one of the others though.

As an employee of a major healthcare company I am familiar with this. My company let a LOT of people go nationwide this year. Most have until Dec 31. A few are gone tommorrow.

I'm down to just myself as the developer..and it sucks.

Yup, you're right on the Ford buyout there, Crowley. Can't complain much when the company at least gives you a fair shake on the way out. I'm more just referring to this growing annual trend of Christmas layoffs.

Share the season of joy, the spirit of giving: give your shareholders a bonus and lay off masses of workers!

I guess they want them off the books by the end of the year. DAMN YOU, CORPORATE ACCOUNTING!

I believe the corporate rational for these sorts of lay-offs is that it's better to fire you before you run up a massive holiday debt.

So, here's something that really kills me. I constantly hear bosses and those in management (in companies everywhere) griping about how nowadays, employees aren't loyal to their employer and have an unsubstantiated sense of entitlement. Gee, guys, ever think that this current pattern of hiring binge (due to overly-optimistic forecast) -> massive layoffs -> stratospheric CXO salaries might have the general workforce feeling a little jaded? Back when a company would hire an employee, allow them to advance through the ranks over the years, and eventually retire with a watch and a pension, employees had a reason to be loyal.

Now, that mindset has been supplanted with one of "get what you can, while you can," because even the best employees below the management level are axed in an attempt to wring another hundredth of a percent out of the stock price. It used to be that a large company laying off employees was a big deal, one that hurt the stock price and severely tarnished the company's reputation. Now it's not only common, it's practically expected. This whole process is capitalism at work, and it's a grim reality in a competitive corporate world, but for those in charge to gripe about the direct humanitarian result of their actions is not only moronic, it's insultingly stupid.

When I first got into the workforce, my goal was to find a place I wanted to stick with and stay there. I believed in loyalty between employees and their employers, and thought that kind of concept was still alive and well in the working world.

Sadly, everyplace I've worked, I've found out that I was wrong.

My first few jobs, I tried to do the loyalty thing, but when you get screwed over repeteadly it's hard to feel very loyal to the screwer. Or when I see my employer (whether speaking about a person or a company) engaging in highly unethical activities that aren't technically illegal. Or, more often, when they're engaging in activities that are illegal.

I am AMAZED at the number of companies that either I or people I know have worked at that knowingly violate federal labor laws on a consistent and regular basis. And people simply live with it, because the only real alternatives are to go to another company who will screw you over just as badly, or sue your employer which, even if successful, results in hardship the rest of your working life. Basically, your options are to decide who you're going to let screw you over and how badly. And none of those options really lead to any sort of feeling of loyalty to an employer.

I honestly don't care if any company I work for goes belly-up. Boo-hoo for them. I'll go find another job if they do and get screwed over there too.

Yeah, I'm bitter. I'm disillusioned. It sucks. And yeah, my life sucks right now too, so I'm sure that's embittering me more than usual.

More CEO's need to watch A Christmas Story. Scrooges, the lot!

Farscry wrote:

When I first got into the workforce, my goal was to find a place I wanted to stick with and stay there. I believed in loyalty between employees and their employers, and thought that kind of concept was still alive and well in the working world.

Really, you too? Although my realization had more to do with noticing that the people who bounce from company to company tend to get treated better than those who stick with just one.

Irongut wrote:

More CEO's need to watch A Christmas Story. Scrooges, the lot!

How would watching A Christmas Story un-Scrooge them? I just don't see Ralphy teaching anyone a lesson.

Hell if I worked for Ford I'd take the deal, the buyout/early retirement packages they are getting are insane! A thing to note in the story is the Ford buyouts are voluntary and are starting in January through next September. The Pfizer cuts though, yeah, that's harsh.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Hell if I worked for Ford I'd take the deal, the buyout/early retirement packages they are getting are insane!

Ditto for me!