As I struggled to stay awake in a 7 hour meeting yesterday, I was happy to see that it was time to take a break and connect to a webcast that our Vice President was holding to discuss 2009 goals for IT (Our Information Technology group). He also planned on taking 45 minutes of questions during the session which is what I was most interested in hearing. I was anticipating some rather bold questions in light of the fact that our company announced upwards of 10% of the IT staff would be laid off. My company is pretty large and there are hundreds of IT workers. I’d guess there were at least 500 people connected to the webcast.
After the introductory presentation where everyone struggled not to nod off, it was finally time to start asking questions and people didn’t hesitate to start off with the most direct questions. "Why are you laying people off instead of seeking other cost cuts?" read the director from a previously submitted email. The VP squirmed a bit and expressed that they had done significant cost reductions in other areas and believed that labor was the last place they could cut. "Why isn’t the company considering freezing salaries or reducing existing people’s wages instead of laying people off?" said the same director as he read from yet another previously submitted email question. Frankly that question surprised me. I wasn’t surprised because I was against the idea, but rather because I was surprised people were willing to personally sacrifice a percentage of their salaries. What surprised me even more was the nodding of heads and general agreement in the room I was sitting in.
I’ve never seen people more willing to reduce their income levels to save the greater population of employees. Perhaps I was sitting in a room full of people that all felt they were about to be laid off, but I don’t think that’s the case. The people around me have all been at the company for quite some time and would be some of the last people to actually be laid off so I don’t think fear of a layoff was driving the general opinions in the room. Unfortunately the VP answered with a "fluff" answer. He basically said that all options were considered and the company hadn’t considered salary freezes or reductions as a viable option. It’s a strange time.
It just so happened that the same day this meeting took place, Microsoft announced they would be reducing their workforce by roughly 5000 people. As IT workers, that will definitely create more competition for my fellow employees that are laid off and looking for work. Something tells me it’s going to be a long, tough road for many of these people. I’m hoping I won’t be in the same boat but so far I appear to be pretty safe in my job.
In an ideal world, I’d take my raise and bonus and let them lay off the poor performers. Easily 10% of the workforce at *any* company is deserving of being axed.
Unfortunately in the real world, layoffs (at least at my company) are not based on job performance but rather on job function. Apparently for legal reasons, or so HR says. So it’s not at all uncommon to see top performers laid off.
But given the choice, I’ll take my 5% raise and let them cut the worst performing 5% of the work force. These people do nothing but make my life more difficult with their incompetence.
I think some companies are taking advantage of the recession and laying off workers when they don’t need to, or letting go more employees than they have to. Once a company is known locally as one that lays off workers at the drop of a hat, the company will find when business is good again that they have to pay higher than normal wages to attract workers. People don’t forget.
Here’s a question that everyone seems to ignore. With unemployment rates going higher why do I sit in IT meetings where 8 of 10 participants are not U.S. Citizens and holding H1-B work visas?
Are there really not enough American workers to fill these positions? Given the current unemployment rate, and the fact that we had enough workers until they let hundreds go and replaced them with “cheap” H1-B labor in the first place, I find that very hard to believe.
I suppose it depends where you work and what the corporate culture is like, but I’d rather take a salary freeze than see my coworkers laid off.
Coming from a younger generation that has not had to deal with hard times until now, and spending most of my adult life experiencing the shift of control from companies to consumers, my preference is to work for a company that values employees as its biggest asset and layoffs clearly send a different message. A company showing it’s willingness to do anything but layoff valuable employees is much more admirable and developing a plan where we all work together to get through tough times is worth a minor pay cut in my eyes.
It would make a lot of sense to take a salary cut. I could very well end up being one of those employees that gets laid off. When I think of it that way, a little pay cut doesn’t sound like such a bad deal.