Laying off on the layoffs

As the global recession deepens, more employers are looking for ways to save money without simply letting people go. Cisco Systems has decided to do a four-day end-of-year shutdown. Employees won't be paid for it, but they'll all still have jobs when the new year starts. Dell Computer is also down an extended unpaid holiday, and something similar is happening in Korea at Samsung and in Taiwan at both of the world's biggest makers of custom semiconductors. Cathay Pacific offered unpaid time off to pilots and flight attendants, and so many flight attendants agree that it works out to five days for each one, more than the airline can handle. Some will be told they can't do it. At Brandeis University, some professors got the idea that if they all took a voluntary 1% pay cut, it would save some jobs without hurting too much. After all, even if you make $80,000 a year, 1% is just $800. But only 30% of instructors agreed to do it, and only two or three jobs will be saved. On the other hand, in South Carolina, the state health department says it will save 75 jobs by making each of its employees take five days unpaid leave. When people talk about four-day work weeks, they usually mean four days, ten hours, still adding up to 40 hours; managed well, this is often an excellent idea, since you can save on HVAC costs on whatever day the building is closed, and the employees have eight commutes a week instead of ten. But some Nevada casinos are doing four-day work weeks -- staggered shifts, so casinos remain open all the time -- that amount to 20% cutbacks in hours to save money. It is against this backdrop that Gov. Lingle is proposing that hundreds of senior officials, including judges, state legislators and herself, forgo their next scheduled pay raise. Anyone in this comfortably compensated group who finds this a hardship isn't managing his money very well. That is not to say that I automatically expect everyone to go along with this. It seems to be human nature that everyone, no matter how much he makes, no matter how much help he has, no matter how little he works, no matter how poor a job he does,  feels fervantly that he is superbly competent, insufficiently appreciated, criminally overworked, and woefully undercompensated. One way to cut through all that and find out how overworked someone really is, I find, is to invite him to tell you about. The more time he has to tell how overworked he is, the less overworked he actually is.

Comments

[Danielle Bergan]

What is unfortunate is that many employers tend to cut area's which will bring immediate savings but hurt them in the long run. Along with employees layoffs or cutting hours advertising or marketing budgets may be cut as well. If you do this you may not have anyone who knows who you are, what you sell or how to find you.
I would suggest looking at how much you currently pay for all your insurances, health, workers’ comp, TDI and SUI. You can shop around individually or a lot of businesses are now looking to outsource these business functions to employee leasing companies or Professional Employer Organizations. For a fee these businesses administer your payroll, human resources, workers’ comp insurance, TDI, SUI and health insurance. Usually you receive rates lower than you could have obtained on your own. You also may free up your cash flow by paying a little each month compared to laying out larger one time premiums especially for worker’s comp and TDI. These services are good for most companies who have already downsized especially if they no longer have a staff member in house who took care of this work. They are also very valuable to small and medium size businesses as well by giving them the same advantages as larger companies.
Becoming creative and looking for solutions are much better ideas than the moaning and groaning, woe is me syndrome which seems to be growing everyday.