As employers push efficiency, the daily grind wears down workers
Gee, what a discovery. I was in the middle of this push 20 years ago, building the systems that make for all this efficiency. In the old world, this would have resulted in companies cutting off their noses to spite their faces because employees were actually valued, the absence of upper management blabbering about "our greatest resource" notwithstanding. Today, it is talk talk talk... empower the employee, greatest resource, and so on ad nauseum. In a typical company any employee empowering himself pursuant to the talk will find his manky hide on the street in about ten minutes.
We live in an era where EVERYTHING is bullshit. Bullshit has become the new truth. It is wildly insane and it is a clear indicator that the human race is fixing to come apart at the seams before a whole lot longer. I have lived through the changes and have watched them closely. Today's work-a-day world really sucks.
Many businesses no longer want long-term relationships with their employees,
Quantum change in circumstances. Disposable culture had to lead to disposable employees. It was inevitable.
Add the buyers market and they have you by the noots, even if you don't have any.
WESTFIELD, Mass. — The envelope factory where Lisa Weber works is hot and noisy. A fan she brought from home helps her keep cool as she maneuvers around whirring equipment to make her quota: 750 envelopes an hour, up from 500 a few years ago.
Thanks the scum who brought us "made in China". When you have people making envelopes at $0.20 per hour, you'd better be certain that is going to have a tremendously adverse effect on those companies in the USA that want to stay here and NOT go out of business. If customers can buy a box of 100 China-made envelopes for $1.70 and yours cost $4.50, guess what's going to happen.
The drudgery of work at National Envelope Co. used to be relieved by small perks — an annual picnic, free hams and turkeys over the holidays — but those have long since been eliminated.
Why should there be perks when management took it in the neck at the hands of unions for 80 years? Does anyone think there is zero payback occurring here? It isn't universal, but is isn't nonexistent either.
Work is seeping into off hours, as bosses pepper employees with email messages at night and on weekends. They monitor employees' Facebook pages and Twitter feeds for comments that conflict with the corporate message. The growing demands at the workplace mean people have less time to spend with their families or to help out with youth sports or other volunteer activities.
This is especially so of salaried employees. In 89 I managed a billion-dollar project for AT&T. I had 124 people under me and I was on conference calls at THREE AM at least once a week, every week for a year. I worked at least 6 days/week, often 7, and for not a penny's compensation extra. By the time I left that project I was a burnt weenie sandwich and I was only 31. Things got only worse after I went independent, but when a client is paying you $200/hour it isn't nearly as bad. $45K/month has its good side.
“If you're a highly skilled employee with highly marketable talents, they're going to pay dearly for you.
Perhaps, but the definition of "highly marketable" changes rapidly. Nobody is safe these days.
“You do what you have to do to keep the doors open,” he said.
This is truth.
When he started, Tayar said, he checked his voice mail every few hours. Today, lawyers must check their BlackBerrys every few minutes — and be prepared to cancel a dinner, weekend trip or vacation at a moment's notice. Tayar said he took just one day's vacation in a five-year stretch.
This was going on in my business 20 years ago. The one thing that has changed is that clients are no longer willing to pick up one's expenses - they expect us to get there on our nickle, which is incredibly idiotic - but the buyer's market enables this because if you don't like it, GTFO. There are a million other "yous" waiting to take your place.
Business is definitely going in the wrong direction, IMO. Taking the "maximizing the shareholder value" to such ridiculous extremes does not stand to do well in the long term. The human race is going 1000 mph toward a large and heavily reinforced concrete wall.
