E-Commerce Times Talkback

Re: Stirring Up Unrest with Tech Layoffs
Posted by: Clare Saliba 2001-10-03 11:51:04

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Although many companies in the technology and e-commerce spaces have undertaken mass
employee layoffs in order to cut costs and prop up sagging earnings, industry analysts
say that a nagging question remains. Are these organizations paying too high a price for
their pursuit of financial relief?

Here in Part 2 of its series on how this year's tech layoffs have affected the firms
forced to make them, the E-Commerce Times examines the ways in which layoffs can
undermine a company's future recruitment efforts and reputation, trigger a backlash among
remaining employees, and enable more stable firms to benefit.

Re: Stirring Up Unrest with Tech Layoffs
Posted by: Jim Pivonka 2001-10-04 03:12:00 In reply to: Clare Saliba

It seems a bit odd to be asking folks to spend money when they hear of tens to hundreds of thousands being laid off each week. How secure can we feel in our personal situations in the face of this news?
The Administration is jawboning the wrong group. Instead of asking the people to prop up the economy by spending money, they should be askiing companies to prop it up by hiring people. The economy will not recover until people see that their jobs and savings are secure.
It is not investment, or tax reductions, that will fuel a recovery. It is profit, and the expectation of profit. And that will not happen until companies, despite the downturn, hire workers, who will then begin to spend, and create revenue and profit.
Asking people to spend money they feel, accurately, they may not have next week, is just wrong.

Re: Stirring Up Unrest with Tech Layoffs
Posted by: Bill Cleere 2001-10-03 19:18:16 In reply to: Clare Saliba

Diane Tunick Murello of Gartner is quoted in this story as saying: "With firms that have been lax in managing performance issues, ...layoffs also may provide an opportunity to create a stronger and leaner organization."

That inference is nonsensical. HP and many other firms have made noises about laying off people who were "performance problems". Any company which says that is actually admitting that its managers don't know what they're doing. If the managers had been doing their jobs all along, they would have improved the performance of most of the "problem" people and gotten rid of the few who wouldn't improve long before there was any question of a layoff.

Managers who don't view coaching and improving performance as their daily jobs don't even know who their best performers are. When a layoff comes, they make decisions as to who goes and who stays based on favoritism and personal likes and dislikes.