A Tip for Joe the Machinist: Better Watch Your Back

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:




A Tip for Joe the Machinist: Better Watch Your Back
July 23, 2011

Corporate America, advises one of the nation’s most prestigious management consulting companies, needs to wake up and stop rewarding employee loyalty and performance. With one exception.

By Sam Pizzigati


You work hard. You do good work. You loyally stick with your employer through good times and bad. Do you have a right to a paycheck that rises over time?

Analysts from one of America’s top management consulting firms, Booz & Co., have an answer that the Harvard Business School last week sent reverberating through Corporate America’s upper echelons. That blunt answer: No.

The notion that good workers doing valuable work deserve to see their paychecks rise over time, pronounce Booz & Co. analysts Harry Hawkes, Albert Kent, and Vikas Bhalla, no longer rates as “tenable.” America’s corporations, the three advise, need to start attacking the “exorbitant” paychecks now going to their most prized, “steady and reliable” veteran workers.

The Booz analysts helpfully offer an example of the “significantly overpaid” worker they have in mind. They call him Joe the machinist, “a stellar employee who knows the ins and outs of the organization, the result of his many years on the job.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/joe-the-machinist/

[Pholus]

1. I can't remember how many times my "Greatest Generation" Dad told stories about bosses like these.

None of them were worthy of a lot of fond memories or loyalty. In fact, one of the best stories he told was about how one local businessman was always under fire from the others for paying his employees so well that best workers would jump ship to get a chance to work with him.

This businessman's reply: "Families need. I'd rather pay my workers than force them to steal from me."

Never guess which business lasted the longest. Of course, Booz doctrinaires only maintain at most a 3 year outlook and after that they're ready to move to their next highly paid position as well.

[Mugweed]

2. I know how Joe feels

After the 2008 collapse, ended up on the receiving end of a 12% reduction in salary in Feb '09. I was told it was to help keep the company running. I guess I was one of the lucky ones because 1/2 of our staff was let go. I was promoted to manager of my department. Not tough to do with only 3 employees and one part-time to manage. I received no increase in salary and still had to perform all the duties of my previous position. Since then, the company has won many decent contracts. So much so that they no longer qualify as a Small Business Enterprise under their NAICS code (meaning they make too much money). So here I am, at a company that makes more money now with a staff of 24 than they did with a staff of 52 (when we were considered financially healthy), everyone is doing 2 or 3 duties to make up for the lost staff, and nobody has seen a pay restoration. I don't think you need to guess how many people are looking out for the first opportunity to jump ship. I went to one of the rare interviews and am hoping to hear a good word back. Better yet, it's a government job. If I'm going to be underpaid, I might as well get back into the pension system and earn more sick and vacation time than any private job would allow.

[notadmblnd]

3. I'm surprised that didn't use the "You're already getting paid to do the job you were hired for"

excuse. That was my previous employer said when asked about increases.

[canoeist52]

4. A great movie from 1991 "Other People's Money", a drama showing

how these quick buck operators took down a long-standing machine shop in New England. (Available on Netflix)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/
"A corporate raider threatens a hostile take-over of a "mom and pop" company. The patriarch of the company enlists the help of his wife's daughter, who is a lawyer, to try and protect the company. The raider is enamored of her, and enjoys the thrust and parry of legal maneuvering as he tries to win her heart."

The love story and ending is hokey but the anatomy of the business take-down is spot-on. The company my hubby and brother

worked at for 30 yrs., which employed machinists since the 1800's making world-renowned centrifuges, closed in 1994 and

could have been the model for the movie.

[txlibdem]

5. Sounds like Corporate America's class warfare against the citizens and our economy

The only surprise for me is that they are waging war against us so openly yet the sheeple continue marching to the corporate tune.

It's high time for the American worker to wake up and organize, unionize and mobilize.

[FreakinDJ]

6. This has been going on for 3 years now

[SharonAnn]

8. Only 3 years? Try 30 years.

[bemildred]

7. Heck, we knew that 40 years ago, loyalty is a two-way street. nt

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[w0nderer]

10. K & R n/t