Workers vote no.

BoxcabE50 Oct 11, 2022

  1. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I understand this fact. But the cut and run of such philosophy has really proliferated since the 1960's. Where railroads once acquired other companies to strengthen their influence in a market, now they do so only to bleed them dry and be rid of competition. I was just reading about an ongoing fight for Disney. Walt is probably rolling over and over.....
     
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  2. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    A young family member who is new to the work world recently heard "we all must do more with less" from senior management for the first time. In the latter years of my career, I heard it annually year after year, combined with staff cuts, "stretch goals" and additional work initiatives. My retirement put an end to this cycle of nonsense.
     
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  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Sounds like where I am working these days. Chronically shorthanded. People hiring on to collect a paycheck, but doing as little as possible to earn it. Quitting when they find out they must actually hustle. The few carrying the many. Short of equipment. Far up-line demanding we do the work of eight people, with four- then upset when the goal is missed, by a mile. DUH. (But it says here on paper it can happen! NO WAY. Paper and reality are two worlds a million miles apart...) It is a huge mess.
     
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  4. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I think a new reality dawned on the hiring of young people some 10 or more years ago and many employers failed to realize it. With most old skool benefits gone and routine staffing cuts the norm, employers have burned employee allegiance to the ground. Employees once had pride and belonging in their employers, but young people now see themselves as free agents, made all the easier with portable IRAs and easy 401-k transfers. At the time of my retirement, I was astonished at the number of smart young college grads who quit, only to be replaced by new college grads who also quit! Meanwhile, they push older employees out the door by assigning impossible workloads.

    You'd think that leadership in Human Resource departments would be concerned, but it doesn't seem so.
     
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  5. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Yeah, they're concerned. They know where their ulcers come from. But this emphasis on office politics over serving the customer comes from way over HR's heads.

    If new regulations weren't invented every day that small businesses are hard pressed to afford, not to mention the occasional lockdown over the common cold that never seems to apply to Wal Mart, corporations would never be able to compete.
     
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  6. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    I retired six years ago as a true dinosaur - 51+ years with the same organization and its corporate successors. None of the currently hiring out work force will approach that - and for two reasons the 'new hires' will get disgusted and move on to greener pastures and secondly the Corporation will get penny wise and dollar foolish again and euthanize a sizable part of their work force - AGAIN.
     
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  7. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    ^ being a Gen-X'er is a precocious place to be because of this. I'm wired to think I should be a company man and work at the same place my entire life, and about mid-to-late 2000s employers all adopted the scorched earth policy towards its employees - squeeze what you can until they quit or just cut ties with them, then hire again at same low wage with little to no reason to stay until that person leaves or gets burned, as well. Lather, rinse, repeat.

    The difference is I highly resent this and think it's unfair - it limits the possibility of any employer cultivating talent and/or loyalty. I still see it as something I can change through my own performance. Most of the younger people I know around here see this instead as the way things are so why bother ever trying, just get what you can get and then move on.

    The insanity of it all is that it's a toss-up most days as to which one of us has the more effective approach. The perpetually disposable workforce is definitely a thing, and it definitely affects all aspects of the landscape in horrendous ways.
     
  8. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    It is the result of the 'bean counter mentality' knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. Bean counters only know the wages and fringes that are paid to employees, they can't calculate the the economic difference between the employee that benefits the company and the one that just takes the paycheck so they lump all into the 'paycheck' column and feature everyone is equally replaceable.
     
  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I was just going to make a very similar comment. This is so true.
     
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  10. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Yes. But do the bean counters create and enforce it, or just enable it? The rise of corporatism has also produced a whole mass of middle managers who seem to think their primary purpose is to ensure that anyone who could do their job better than they do never get that chance.

    A lot is said about how wasteful a massive layer of middle management is, but whole volumes could be written about how counter-productive they can be. Throw in an attitude of, I get paid more than the people who actually produce what we sell, so I must be more important than them, and you have a sure recipe for eventual failure.

    And it's percolating throughout society. Arrogance is increasingly perceived as a virtue. I think the best thing we could do is fight back against anything and everything that penalizes little "mom and pop" businesses. And these days, there's plenty of that.
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2023
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