Category Archives: Employment

Depressing but true

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.”

– Gore Vidal

Saving the rich, losing the economy

US politicians, such as Buddy Roemer, blame the collapse of US manufacturing on Chinese competition and “unfair trade practices.”  However, it is US corporations that move their factories abroad, thus replacing domestic production with imports. Half of US  imports from China consist of the offshored production of US corporations.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/26/saving-the-rich-losing-the-economy/

Customer satisfaction surveys

When given one of those customer satisfaction surveys, always try and give a glowing report about the individual who helped you (unless they were terrible, of course) because those surveys are just another tool for corporations to harass their already under-paid, under-appreciated employees. You don’t want to be responsible for getting someone fired just because of some stupid survey, do you? This is all part of my motto: “People have to stick together against oppressive corporations!” :)

How companies SHOULD cut back

When faced with too many expenses and not enough income and you have run out of expenses to reduce, rather than firing employees, the fair and socially-responsible way to cut costs is NOT to fire employees who had nothing to do with those costs getting too high.  The FIRST target of cost-cutting needs to be the salary and/or compensation of the CEO and other executives whose decisions led to the financial imbalance of the company.

If it turns out that there is NO WHERE else to cut costs, the company should then cut salaries and compensation ACROSS THE BOARD.  Don’t penalize those one or two or twenty blameless employees by putting them out of work.  Reduce EVERYONE’s salary 2 or 3 or 5 percent.