It is with deep regret that we inform you of certain cost-cutting measures that will be taken in the coming days so that we can remain competitive. But first some good news. We are happy to report that Bring Your Child to Work Day has been renamed Bring Your Child to Do Work Day. We hope you will contribute unstintingly to the Gummy Bears Overtime Fund.
Now for the harsh realities. We will no longer be serving complimentary cold cuts and soda on Cold Cuts and Soda Day. Stairs will go up, but not down. Please do not use the fire extinguisher unless there is no water in the toilets. Anyone wishing to put out a medium-to-large fire must first fill out form X34J (if in stock). Mr. Johnson and Mr. Green, you will be sharing a desk chair, although you may keep separate desks. With regard to our annual retreat, spouses of non-management employees will be considered luggage. The letters “K,” “Q,” and “Z” are costly and should be used sparingly. Anyone who would like to volunteer for the human weather-stripping experiment, contact Nan Newberg. Also, as of next Wednesday, there will be no Wednesdays.
A number of you have asked about the employee-suggested programs that were implemented last year. While we were all heartened by their popularity—yay, associate assistants!—most of them will be suspended. These include: Kitten Appreciation Moment, Say Hello Day, and the Mandatory Toilet Paper in the Rest Rooms Policy. We are particularly saddened that elevator privileges for housekeeping will once again be on a pay-to-play basis. In order to maintain company morale, however, the mojito fountain in the executive lounge will continue to operate as usual.
The “Don’t Leave Your Coffee Cups on Joan Fannywider’s Desk: It’s Not a Trash Can (Well, It Kind of Is!)” rule will remain in place, although, as of next week, Ms. Fannywider will not. We are all sad to see Ms. Fannywider go, but can we agree that this is a blessing in disguise, since, clearly, it is now or never for her as far as starting a family goes? Good luck, Joan, and kindly return the stapler on your way out.
Mr. Braynfreez, every day is now casual Friday for you. In fact, you don’t even have to bother getting out of bed. If time is money, kudos—you are now a rich man.
To those of you in Quality Control: As indicated by the new sign in your rest room, employees must wash their hands before not returning to work. If you don’t understand what that means, ask Mr. Braynfreez.
It has come to our attention that certain persons feel that executive-compensation packages have been unduly awarded. Management has zero tolerance for negativity. Moreover, now is not the time to play “the blame game.” In days like these, we must tighten our belts and be team players. Note: Anyone who received a signing bonus will be required to return it, posthaste, with interest. In fairness, senior V.P.s were asked to give back the income from last year’s exercised options, but they concluded that the calculation would be difficult and onerous.
Finally, we’d like to announce, with tremendous relief, that once Mr. Braynfreez and the folks in Quality Control go (and after Mr. Hafwitt is replaced with voice mail) no further layoffs are foreseen this quarter. From now on, however, we will operate as a “Stage 2 Company.” Anyone wishing to retain his or her job must therefore: (1) obtain an updated photo I.D. (available through Mr. Braynfreez) and (2) furnish your own salary.
Reminder to members of the Stage 2 Planning Committee: Please let us know whether you prefer swordfish or steak, aisle or window, silver or gold.
We believe these adjustments will result in a stronger, more resilient company. Just think: If every employee could give us merely half of his or her life savings, we would be on the road to a “solution mode”! So let’s put the bad times behind us and all move forward, except for the following persons (see attached).
Have a nice day.
.
71 comments:
Thanks to C.E.O.s maintaining their own criminally high salaried jobs by cutting everybody else's jobs, unemployment climbed to a quarter-century peak of 8.1 percent last month, and surged toward even more wrenching double digits. Hope you enjoyed today's satire, but what do you say about the reality of all this? - Dr. B.
I am not surprised by the numbers. We have had a economy which based on fantasy..we made nothing, borrowed everything..had a stock market which was driven by greed and not reality. The numbers of dow being 12,000 - 14,000 was bogus..it was based on bad investments, ponzi schemes, sub-prime mortgages, etc. When we come out of this and we will we will , we will have a new economy which is based on reality..we will come out of this stronger and much wiser. Time to restructure this country as well as globally.
Down with the gazillionaires! ANARCHY!
Foxes giving other foxes big bucks while the hen house burns to the ground.
Employment rates came out today, and 92.8% of us are not seeking unemployment benefits. Just makin' lemonade, people.
The jump in unemployment should be seen more as evidence that prior figures may have understated the rate of deterioration than as something to be corrected in coming months.
Job loss continues at a stunning pace – we haven’t seen employment fall off a cliff like this in over thirty years.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S. has lost 4.38 million jobs, with 75% of the drop occurring in the most recent six months. I expect labor market conditions to remain dreadful for many months to come, which will reinforce the decline in consumer spending that is occurring for other reasons as well.
With more job losses on tap over coming months and an increasing share of workers relegated to part-time work, there will be little support for consumer spending over coming months. While the much vaunted stimulus package may help on the margins, it won’t change this bottom line.
Even with all of this, we are nowhere close to structural unemployment rates that are common in Europe. Sadly, we are also nowhere close to measures taken by Europeans to assure that long term unemployment does not become a humanitarian catastrophe.
I've been monitoring a site called
http://www.layoffdaily.com/
which aggregates news of layoff, furloughs and unemployment stats every day.
I did a quick count of yesterday's real and announced job cuts, furloughs etc. It came to 20,645
Today has been kind -- so far only 3,054 announced cuts...unless the Gov of NJ makes good on his threat to cut 7,000 state jobs. We hear a lot about the big cuts by the big companies, but all those companies and organizations cutting 30, 50, 70 people at a time...those add up, quickly.
I'm unemployed....have been for almost eight months. I'm a college graduate too. I should be highly employable. But I'm not worried about that. Because I agree completely with what Sundial has said. Sundial is focusing on what is good and strong about life on this planet and these United States. What you focus on expands. If you are focusing on what you lack you are just going to get more of the same. Life has changed exponentially for me since I learned to focus on blessings and other good things, job or no job. You can dismiss it all you want and call me crazy for thinking the way that I do. It doesn't change any of the facts.
What saddens me is there is a not an insignificant number of CEOs who either made money or political hay from "free trade" and the offshoring of the many jobs that put us in this predicament.
And yet even though they are personally responsible for this tragedy, those same people now lead the pack braying about deficit spending and the harm that increasing taxes will do to job creation - even as they sit among the loot they accumulated from using their previous "job creating" tax cuts to build even more factories and businesses offshore.
With so many people losing their jobs and spending more time at home the morning commute will be emptier and the freeways less crowded. As another important side effect with fewer cars on the road air quality will go up and global warming will be less of a threat. Perhaps we should all stay home for a couple years while Obama implements the changes that will create a healthy green economy!!!!
When Reagan took office, the unemployment rate was at 7.5 % and rising. Inflation was near 10% and out of control. Within 18 months unemployment was up to 11%.
After the tax cuts took effect, the country enjoyed tremendous prosperity. and unemployment ended up at 5.4%.
Lets watch Obama. He will get all his policies through congress. And he doesn't have to fight inflation..
No jobs, credit cards maxed out, foreclosing homes, falling FICO scores.
Until the American people are put to work, this economy is going nowhere but down.
Had the initial 800 billion had at least some allocated to the private sector to specifically pay off their credit cards, the problem would be solved.
The banks would have their money, the people would have limits back on their credit cards and businesses would have customers with money (credit) to spend and jobs would be in place.
Almost totally agree. But -- look at the number of jobs the private sector outsourced and moved offshore.
Even the oil companies started hiring Asians to work at lower wages than Americans. We spent years outsourcing jobs, hiring temps, getting rid of benefits -- all this stripped the middle class.
And companies moved off shore. And see what happens? You cannot expect poor people to support your company. If people aren't working, they won't buy and support your company. Bring the jobs home.
We cannot depend on private sector jobs anymore. Ceo's are laying off everybody but themselves. The Govt has to pickup the slack.
Don't you wish you were a fly on the wall of the meeting room where Microsoft decided on 5000 layoffs?
CFO: In the past three months, we earned $4.17 billion on sales of $16.63 billion. We have $20 billion in cash, and $2 billion in debt. What a disaster!
CIO: What do you mean, disaster? That sounds pretty good.
CFO: Sure, a few years ago, not now. Earnings have to grow. It means that the stock price will go down.
CEO: Do you know what my parsimonious salary is? Why? Because I'm paid in stock. I'm losing money, you're losing money, we're all losing money!
Chairman: Don't forget about my foundation.
CFO: We must do lay offs! Let's see, if we slashed $1.6 billion, hmm, about 5,000 layoffs should do it, we can add that to the bottom line. Doesn't matter who, we can figure that out as we go along. That should perk up the stock. And we can always buy some to support the stock.
CEO: How does that sound?
Union Rep: That sounds like a strike. Let's try this, $20 billion cash, $2 billion debt, $4.17 billion earnings in just this quarter, if you think you can just destroy 5,000 lives, you've got another think coming! There's no way you're doing layoffs with that profit and cash position, none. So think of something else, or brother, we'll strike!
Sometimes, don't you wish the US could have meeting rooms where the above could be discussed?
I think Obama should make a speech in which he challenges business to find other ways to stay viable besides laying off workers. Freezing wages of upper management, or lowering wages or shorter work weeks or other, non-people cost-cutting ways. Obama said we all need to sacrifice, why is it always only the workers who are being asked to do so? Laid off workers don't pay taxes, take money for unemployment, lose buying power and that does not even go into the suffering they endure and the march toward poverty. He needs to take this on directly.
Unemployment is taxed! Can't even catch a break when the chips are down!
Doc's got it right. Every boss and CEO in America is using the economic scare as an excuse to fire employees and have the remaining ones double and triple-up on their work!
We won't see CEOs and bosses cutting their own salaries.
They will rake in many more billions from this opportunity.
Bottom line is - America is dying because EVERY industry is leaving or left the country. The talent pool is leaving with it and "reputable" U.S. colleges and their certificates needed for opportunity are both way too expensive and, ironically, not worth a penny of it with the exception of the top 3.
We need a *serious* education policy, to bring technology home and a smart trade policy or this country will have to rely on another huge war to destroy some (Asian?) threat and another "Marshall Plan" to rebuild.
Nobody wants that, I think....
I agree.
America is dying because it has stopped educating its kids. America is dying because it relies on a nuclear powered navy and a precision guided air force to fake power in a world where business contracts mean everything and bombs can only be dropped on the poor and the defenseless.
In the good old days they used to call it "hubris", I believe. And we are full of it.
:-)
what goes around comes around
yeah, it IS about profit with publicly traded companies...
...and see where worship of the almighty $ has gotten us...
drymartini will be drinking pabst soon!
I am SO tired of companies cutting jobs while they're STILL making a profit!! It's one thing if you're doing it to keep the business in business by preventing losses. It's another thing entirely (greed of stockholders, basically) to lay people off to preserve a desired profit margin.
I would love for some American company to finally stand up and say "We're willing to absorb some decreases in profit or even some losses in order to protect the employees who got us to where we are now, so that we'll be better prepared to move forward when the economy recovers".
IBM is laying off thousands in the USA and Canada today. This after posting record earnings (first time breaking $100 billion). Just google ibm layoffs in news sorted by date.
Home Depot cut 7000 jobs
Home Depoit ran a credit card scam just like many banks are doing. They offer a no interest loan using their credit card for 6 months. I bought my kitchen there and took advantage of the offer, When the 6th month came they sent me a bill and asked for the minimum payment. I paid it and was then charged 18% interest on the full balance for the 6 months prior. The catch was in the fine print. I was supposed to pay the amount in full before the end of 6 months. The interest was a few hundred dollars. It's a scam, a trick. Don't shop there.
Wind and solar power have been growing at a blistering pace in recent years, and that growth seemed likely to accelerate under the green-minded Obama administration. But because of the credit crisis and the broader economic downturn, the opposite is happening: installation of wind and solar power is plummeting.
Factories building parts for these industries have announced a wave of layoffs in recent weeks, and trade groups are projecting 30 to 50 percent declines this year in installation of new equipment, barring more help from the government.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/for-clean-energy-layoffs-and-plummeting-demand/
Bloomberg L.P., the financial news and data firm, said on Wednesday that it had cut 100 jobs, the first layoffs since it was founded by Michael R. Bloomberg 28 years ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/nyregion/05bloomberg.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
When does FOX begin its layoffs? Now that would be a recession bi-product to celebrate.
It's hard enough to lose a job. But for a growing proportion of U.S. workers, the troubles really set in when they apply for unemployment benefits.
More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers.
The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/11/AR2009021104311.html?hpid=topnews
It's hard enough to lose a job. But for a growing proportion of U.S. workers, the troubles really set in when they apply for unemployment benefits.
More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers.
The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/11/AR2009021104311.html?hpid=topnews
How's the private sector going to create wealth when nobody can afford to buy their products?
There's no demand right now. Nobody's going to build a factory when we're overcapacity and shutting down the ones we have. Nobody's going to open a retail outlet when they're closing up left and right.
February nonfarm payroll came in at -651,000, taking the unemployment rate up to 8.1%, a 25 year high. The unemployment rate in California is now well over 10%. There were huge revisions up in the December and January figures. Remember when the market used to have a heart attack over a job loss of 100,000? Those were the days! More than 4.4 million workers have lost their jobs since December, 2007, taking the total unemployed to a record 12.5 million. It may be only a matter of months before we surpass the 1981 peak unemployment rate of 10.8%. These figures suggest that the current quarter GDP could be as low as -8%, the worst since the thirties.
www.madhedgefundtrader.com
I've been monitoring a site called
http://www.layoffdaily.com/
which aggregates news of layoff, furloughs and unemployment stats every day.
I did a quick count of yesterday's real and announced job cuts, furloughs etc. It came to 20,645
Today has been kind -- so far only 3,054 announced cuts...unless the Gov of NJ makes good on his threat to cut 7,000 state jobs. We hear a lot about the big cuts by the big companies, but all those companies and organizations cutting 30, 50, 70 people at a time...those add up, quickly.
Hey, I got an idea! Let's give some tax cuts to the rich and hope it trickles down to the middle class......
Right Mr. Boehner? Right, Mr. Cantor? Right, Mr. McConnel? How about you, Rush....what do you think?
We're heading to at least 25% unemployment. 8.1% is nothing.
And it's all Obama's fault. I know because the anti-Buddha of Hate Limbaugh told me so. With super human power Obama in less than two months time has destroyed the utopia that Bush and the Republicans created and the legacy they left for future generations. Excuse me now I have to go watch and listen to the gospel according to Bill O'Reilly.
High levels of unemployment make the parasitic Capitalist class very happy indeed.
We need to think post-recovery. Massive government spending may stoke inflation. The real tricky act would be for the Fed to fight inflation by raising interest rates without hampering the momentum on economic recovery.
Not too long ago, in summer of last year, we had a highly inflationary environment with oil hitting almost $150 a barrel. Inflation can return very quickly and it must be contained. There were a lot of inflationary expectations that drove the price of oil up so high.
Government should function as a market/economy stabilizer. Wild price fluctuations require government intervention. Bush admin was sleep at the switch. Hopefully with Obama's hands-on approach we can achieve the kind of stability that can foster economic growth and prosperity.
Oil prices were not due to inflation (nor peak oil), rather pure speculation. Deflation is the current danger. The Fed will fight deflation by inflating the dollar. After that light bulb burns out, what do you think will happen?
Right now we are in more danger of deflation. Every time someone defaults on a loan the money supply contracts. This applies deflationary pressure.
And with so many unemployed, wage deflation may occur.
Hewlett Packard is cutting salaries across the board.
We may end up experiencing a nation like that of the Great Depression, but America will find a path back to prosperity.
Unemployment is actually even higher than the numbers that have just come out; because no one is taking into account the number of people still unemployed but not eligible for compensation any longer.
Small business has to return and the American mindset has to change back to the hard-working roots that it once was.
Losing your job is a problem but if you were living way above your means, then the loss of a job is like a death sentence to life as you know it.
Americans have to change their ways and get a new priority list going. There is no need for a new cell phone every 6 months or new car every 2 years. We spend money like children in a candy store and the stock market has yet to end its freefall.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat forever.
Give a man a fish a day for a couple of weeks and they will only eat for those couple of weeks.
If you are on unemployment at the moment, I would suggest you get off the computer and go to your local community college, university, or vocational school and learn a new skillset that will allow you to be gainfully employed well into the future.
Right now those Republican fishermen have overfished the ocean and there aren't any fish for the rest of us to catch. I've traveled every year for three years in order to have work and this year there isn't even something away from home to go work at.
To help you all out, according to the US census, 24.4% of the US population has a Bachelor's degree or higher. 4.1% of those people are out of work.
This means that 75.6% of the population has less than a bachelor's degree. Let's figure out what the unemployment rate is for this group...
.244 * 4.1 + .756 * x = 8.1
x = (8.1 - .244 * 4.1) / .756
x = (8.1 - 1) / .756
x = 9.4
Therefore while it is natural for some college educated people to be out of work, you are more than twice as likely to be out of a job if you did not finish college.
On top of that you are competing in a job market against 75% of the population instead of against 25% of the population.
If you have gone on an interview can you imagine what would happen to your odds of getting the job if there were a quarter of the people applying for the same position?
As for what to study, I would recommend healthcare, technology, engineering, or science. It depends on what interests you, and what you would love to do. But whatever you do, learn something that lets you make something; our economy cannot thrive on services alone.
8.1% unemployment rate!!!??? I hope the governors are going to agree to help Americans.
http://www.governmentalityblog.com/my_weblog/2009/03/februarys-unemployment-81what-will-jindal-do-now.html
Latinos are on the bleeding edge of this recession. Check out this story at Miller-McCune.com
http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/at-the-bleeding-edge-of-the-great-recession-1042
1) What is sucking the life out of the global economy is $661 trillion in unregulated derivatives
2) Until these debt instruments are unwound, no financial institution is going to perform well
3) It will take no less than 12-18 months from the present to unwind these contracts, and it could take a couple of years... Since there is no regulation, and no central clearing point, and nobody who is holding this paper is admitting it, the best we can do is guess.
4) Recovery after these contracts are unwound will take years... 6-12 years depending on who you talk to.
5) These contracts were written during the Bush administration while the President was telling people that "The Fundamentals of the Economy are Strong"
6) The market for these contracts froze the day Lehman Bros went under... And that was the point that capitalism ruptured... During the Bush administration. All Obama and Democrats can do is try and pick up the pieces.
Bush encouraged people to spend spend spend after 9/11, and the lax regulatory climate provided by HIS government allowed mortgages to be packaged and sold, split and re-split, until half the time they cannot even find the paper work for the assignments.
Obama cut taxes for 95% of working Americans.
Republicans want tax cuts for the same companies who are taking down the economy: big oil, big banks, hedge funds
How do tax cuts for them help the little guy who won't see a dime as these companies raise their interest rates, fees, and service charges?
I wonder for whoever tracks the unemployment numbers...if they track the person who are re-filing for an extension? Do they account for those who may have found work again? And, there were plenty of people out of work long before this crisis...where do they fit in all of this?
I believe they count new filings for unemployment benefits. The twist is, they don't count those who have run out of benefits. Therefore the real number of unemployed is actually higher than the figures released to the public.
discharged & retired military who are actively looking for employment are not counted in the unemployment statistic either.
Remember that employment figures are a TRAILING indicator. Don't want to burst Rush's bubble of fear and loathing, but really, this is a capitulation moment. We are at or near the bottom.
The hard work is ahead of us now, but put your shoulder to the boulder and PUSH! We are done sledding. Obama has a plan and if we just follow it, we will turn this puppy in the direction it wants to go and then we can breathe again. Now PUSH!
Is the stock market is supposed to be the leading indicator?
It's part of a formula. There's a certain period of "negative growth" combined with other factors that make up the definition of a Depression.
The broader unemployment measure, U-6, which counts part time workers who desire full time work and discouraged workers was at an unadjusted 16% rate.
Also coming into play is the natural monthly expansion of the work force and about 300,000 others who joined the work force for other reasons. This was about 425,000 for February.
Perhaps basing an economy on importing shoddy products to be purchased with borrowed money, starting a war on borrowed money and handing out tax cuts using borrowed money such wasn't such a good idea. Maybe we should borrow some money and hand it out to stimulate the economy.
I really don't know anyone's shocked by this. They knew this was coming unless they have not been paying attention to all the job losses across the country. The only one who is not to concern about this is Rush Limpburg. He wants to see the whole country fail.
Here's my recovery plan:
For three weeks all the media agree to not be prophets of doom. They don't report the job losses. They don't bewail the bank failures. They don't give us sad stories about fore-closures. They just ignore the situation for three weeks.
Then, if we see there's a slight recovery because we haven't been fed daily doses of poisonous pessimism,they agree to hold off for another three weeks, etc.
IS ANYONE SURPRISED that government, healthcare and education are the areas that have not been outsourced and offshored, and/or can't be cut from spending, no matter how poor people become?
This is such a no-brainer I can't even see why there is any debate to the contrary. Bring American industry back...stop the ridiculous trade deals and tax incentives. Stop importing foreigners to replace Americans. These measures wouldn't cost the taxpayers a dime. Simply shoveling money at banks and companies is nothing but a black hole......they will just come back again and again for more.
You can call it "Protectionism" all you like. I call it common sense. American greedy CEOs need a good slap and to be told "NO!" for once.
None of this is going to hurt them. When the country is finally in smoking ruin, they'll just pack up and fly off to their Caribbean mansions where their bank accounts already are stashed, and live like lords. We are the ones who will be left to pay their bills.
More than 1,800 job-hunters crammed a Philadelphia hotel for a career fair, but found the competition fierce as only NINE employers showed up.
Jobseekers handed out resumes and business cards Friday for positions ranging from selling Avon products to temporary jobs working at community fairs. The job fair was sponsored by CareerBuilder.com.
One job-hunter, Philadelphia's Sharon Smith, says she "can't believe the desperation" she saw as people lined up to meet with hiring officials.
I have many friends who are 'unemployed' but are not receiving unemployment benefits, due to varying reasons - one was let go from his job, but his unemployment money would have been less than what we would have got off welfare, because he was working 'part time' at 30-38 hours per week.
Also, I'm certain that those all who have lost their jobs prior to last September's drop off, are having an extremely difficult, if not impossible, time finding a new job. So although they are not on unemployment benefits, they are unemployed.
This is where these numbers are skewed.
Not included are the self employed.
Outsourcing jobs in order to manufacture goods cheaper so that they can be imported and sold for a cheaper price. Looks great on one hand. Too bad no one in the republican party bothered to look into who would be buying these cheap imported goods when vast swaths of the American population don't have jobs or can barely survive.
That percentage of 8.1 is essentially telling us that 8.1% of the population of this country has been taken out of the marketplace. That means 8.1% of the population will not be buying cars, homes, your cheap ass made-in-china toaster or clothes. Welcome to George W. Bush's service economy.
I have said that for years. I could not believe that we send jobs overseas and then we expect
our folks to buy the cheap stuff when they are out of a job. Must have been a REPUBLICAN IDEA,
just like the wealth trickling down and the rich creating jobs. I want to ask how this is working out for the Republicans now. I cannot believe there are still people out there like Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc, who miss Bush and trash Obama!
There is something about this current obsession with Wall Street that reminds me of people huddled in front of a TV and watching something they don't even understand all to forget what's going on outside. Like a perfect storm. They watch and talk and point at the screen, exclaiming with with 'ooooo's and 'aaahhhh's' every time the picture changes. The house is coming down around their ears but to look at them you'd think that was peanuts compared to the awesome things going on in the show....broadcast in a foreign language. They haven't got a clue what is being said, any more than your average person has a clue how the stock market works or understands the lingo of Wall Street. Yet they are pinned to the screen.
I don't like to use the phrase 'in denial'; it's overused. But here I make an exception. I think this IS a form of denial. Wall Street is just one part of this mess and hardly the most important part. But it's something to obsess about, this artificial benchmark of how the economy is really doing, so that we don't have to look at the gri tty, sc ary facts that, unlike Wall Street, really do weigh ordinary people down: lost jobs, huge mortgage payments, broken-down cars, strained marriages, sick kids, doctor bills they'll still be paying off in 2015, and, possibly, a way of life in America that is gone forever.
Too much to bear.
Back to the show.
To the U.S. Congress:
During an unprecedented economic downturn, some American companies are needlessly laying off workers.
These layoffs are the decisions of CEOs and executives who earn many times what the average worker makes and often get multi-million dollar bonuses. Ironically, these executives - not the workers - are usually the reason for a company’s difficulties.
I believe that unneeded layoffs are a tremendous threat to the U.S. economy. Simply put, workers without jobs can’t afford to buy goods or services. The massive layoffs are creating a spiraling, downward cycle in the economy that affects not just the families of these laid off workers but everyone.
I realize that sometimes a company must lay off workers. However, we agree with the sentiments of CEO Barry Diller, who recently said…
“The idea of a company that’s earning money, not losing money, to have cutbacks so they can earn another $12 million or $20 million or $40 million in a year where no one’s counting is really a horrible act when you think about it, on every level. First of all, it’s certainly not necessary. It’s doing it at the worst time. It’s throwing people out to a larger unemployment heap for frankly no good reason. It’s not that you don’t want to earn as much money as you can — it is your obligation, of course — but companies have obligations beyond that and they certainly have obligations beyond that at certain times, in the times in which they operate.”
I call on the members of Congress to hold immediate hearings and to call the CEOs of these companies to account for themselves and these harmful layoffs. Let the American people see the CEOs answer questions in a public forum, explain their decisions and discuss their executive pay packages.
The recent example of the hearings with the big three automakers have shown that CEOs can change their behavior under public scrutiny. I hope these hearings will bring about public awareness and get the executives of all American businesses to act in a manner befitting the times and more beneficial to all.
Says it all. Kudos.
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