Fewer Employees + Same Work = Higher Productivity 609
LiamRandall writes "Time magazine has an article discussing the effects that recent layoffs in corporate America has had on remaining workers. While I'm glad that I haven't been laid off (like 1/2 my group) I'm overloaded with all of my new responsibilities.
On one hand I feel very fortunate to still have a job- I feel some what guilty complaining given that the computer industry is second in layoffs. While some former coworkers of mine got the axe because upper management didn't understand what their contributions to the company were, others were dead wood anyway. The Chinese symbol for crisis is danger + opportunity; in these turbulent times do you find yourself rising to the challenge or being overloaded with responsibility? Is your to-do list growing exponentially? What new work are you faced with and how are you dealing with it?"
team dynamics (Score:5, Insightful)
but they dumped the wheat here that made this job fun. im the lone developer now, and upper managements lack of desire to understand and know the folks in development drove my friend away.
my productivity has gone down, tho my load has increased, only because i care less about my job now that the people that made it fun are gone.
thats my 2 cents
Re:team dynamics (Score:3, Insightful)
I dont have time to make the link from this office to the smaller offices better, I dont have time to come up with some of the great innovations I came up with the previous 2 years that increased the system reliability and speed or user productivity. I'm bogged with tasks that I shouldn't be doing but they must be done.
So companies are gaining in keeping expenses down , but they are losing big-time in money making or money saving innovations... one of the big reasons I was hired for in the first place.
but I dont worry, I've been with the It field for over 10 years (except for that stint for a few where I did microbiology/water chemistry) and this is normal... it's a cycle... wait 2-3 and it'll start ramping back up again.
Same Chinese symbol for crisis + opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
Homer: "Yup - crisi-tunity!"
Re:Same Chinese symbol for crisis + opportunity (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Same Chinese symbol for crisis + opportunity (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Same Chinese symbol for crisis + opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
Lisa, go to your room.
Experiments in karma whoring (Score:3, Funny)
Ah, okay, got it.
D'oh!
Re:Same Chinese symbol for crisis + opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
One day, one of the toilets in the men's room blew up: water was shooting up like old faithful, and we had a couple of inches on the floor. I went to her and said "Amy, we have a real opportunity in the men's room."
She never brought that up again.
Re:Same Chinese symbol for crisis + opportunity (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Same Chinese symbol for crisis + opportunity (Score:3, Interesting)
--
Evan "Not a native speaker, but talked to several who never thought of it"
Re:Same Chinese symbol for crisis + opportunity (Score:4, Interesting)
The word "therapist" means someone who goes into your mind, and is made up of the two words "the rapist", but that doesn't have a bearing on the classical meaning of the word, even though anti-psycologist speakers will hammer that breakdown in their writings and speaches. It even has a very poetic feel to it - a therapist goes into very personal aspects of your life if you want them to or not. They are the rapist of your mind.
That doesn't mean that's where the word came from or even that it was a common observation about the word until modern times.
--
Evan
Yes!! Crisitunity! (Score:5, Funny)
lack of political defense (Score:4, Insightful)
Merit shmerit. The commercial PHB's want young workers because they don't yet have families (overtime and distractions) and because PHB's pay attention to superficial things like icon-drags-per-minute rather than the things that experience helps with: long-term maintainability of complex software and the ability to spot bad vendor hype.
I don't know if unions are really the answer, but one thing I have noticed is that if you have no political power, you get stepped on by those who do. The big companies are lobbying like crazy to make it easier to hire or rent cheaper foreign workers. Congress is easy for them to buy.
If geeks don't find a political voice of some sort, we WILL get stepped on. It is simple as that. Be it jobs, digital/IP rights, etc. They are already stepping all over our digital/IP rights, what makes you think they won't somehow do the same to our careers? The writing is on the wall.
No problemo... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No problemo... (Score:5, Funny)
...after this, I go to meetings for a living.
"Fewer Employees + Same Work = Higher Productivi"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Who came up with this ridiculous title, Michael or the submitter? The title has nothing to do with the body of the article.
Fewer employees due to less work (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fewer employees due to less work (Score:2)
In related productivity reports... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In related productivity reports... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In related productivity reports... (Score:3, Interesting)
How in the *heck* was my comment moderated as a *troll*? Sure, it was terse and sarcastic, but my point was completely on-target.
I will "read between the lines" of my comment for anyone who saw a pointless troll in my comment.
Productivity can very easily be increased by applying a threat of negative consequences for lack of productivity increases. "Work harder or I kill you" will usually acheive a productivity increase. Productivity gains by negative consequence threats are hardly news, yet the story linked above makes this sound like it *is* news.
I have survived many layoff cycles, and have had the work of up to 5 "former" employees delegated to me. Did I do all of their work? Yup. At the cost of me working frantic 16 hour days for months on end, under the fear that if I didn't complete their work, I would be the next to be laid off. To report that my productivity increased while at the same time neglecting to list the true costs of my productivity increase (my personal life suffered so much that I quit, leaving all of my work to be done by several undertrained co-workers who soon quit after I did) is to tell only 1/2 the story, and makes a net loss situation sound like a net gain in terms of productivity.
well.... (Score:5, Informative)
But, what I have noticed is a reluctance to spend much on training/extras. I've read attendance at industry shows/dev conventions is down. I've talked to other people from my former company and all agree that it's tough to get the authorizations approved for travel and classes and stuff.
It just goes along with the "less pampering" attittude. There's a bunch of guys they could hire to do your job (at least until you get detailed business knowledge that is tough to replace).
At our site ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Then, the network started going tits up. Things got so bad the management were relieved of their responsibilities. One of them has now left under a cloud, and the other won't last past Xmas. Some of the original systems team have returned. The network is steadily improving to pre-management change levels. We have been vindicated!
Three rounds of layoffs at my job... (Score:3, Interesting)
and we're still underworked. There's only 6 of us left, and in general six people got axed during each layoff round.
I'd love to be overworked right now, instead of posting to slashdot...
(No offense intended)
Re:Three rounds of layoffs at my job... (Score:2, Insightful)
Having too much to do at work is alot better than having too little to do. Time goes alot quicker when you are busy.
High Turnover Rates in the Near Future (Score:5, Insightful)
Right now, I am jobless myself. My company went chapter 7 when their software product did not sell.
I hear this a whole lot -- that the people who still have jobs have a lot of new work and that it is hard to keep up. They are being asked to work more hours on that salary pay, do more things than they ever did before. There is a big potential plus here in the recognition of doing that work -- you can add it to your resume and you gain experience from it.
The second thing that I am hearing from a lot of people is that as soon as things get better, or they get a break into another job that pays better, they are gone, zero notice, no regrets. They are being milked by the management, they know it, and they are going to split as soon as things get better.
Employee retention is going to be a big problem in the not so distant future in the technical fields. There is going to be a lot of people moving once the job market gets warmer. Unfortunately, I do not see that happening until sometime around 4th quarter 2003 or mid year 2004.
I have to go an interview in ten minutes, so I have to go. The Orlando Florida job market is TERRIBLE for technical people. This may be my only break. Bye bye!
Re:High Turnover Rates in the Near Future (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:High Turnover Rates in the Near Future (Score:4, Funny)
pot, meet kettle. Kettle, meet pot.
Re:High Turnover Rates in the Near Future (Score:5, Insightful)
Human. Resources.
When people are treated as disposable/finite/exploitable/burn-uppable pieces of machinery, is it any wonder they lack any sort of the "loyalty" that was so prevalant in the past few decades? When they realize that they companies for which they work just don't give a rat's patootie about them as people, treating them instead like commodities that can easily be replaced by any sucker to email a resume, they stop caring.
Of course, this is a vicious cycle. When the employees stop caring, management sees this, and is less likely to extend the resources necessary to support their personnel because "those employees just don't care." Which, in turn, makes the employees care less.
Repeat ad infinitum.
Re:High Turnover Rates in the Near Future (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not that the cycle is vicious, it's that most executives apparently combine the rapacity of a shark with the intellect of a teletubby.
Mmm... sharkotubby...
Typical (Score:3)
Well, actually, it isn't. It's perfectly okay to point out the flaws in someone's argument or theory. It is not up to the critic to make a better theory, it is up to those who claim they have all the answers to defend their supposed Omniscience. And let's face it: traditional Western economics is supposed to be the best possible solution to all the world's problems.
I guess pointing out how that is false makes one pretty unpopular with the masses that have invested in it. Those of us with less to lose should keep on hammering the point home. Screw the orthodoxy.
Re:High Turnover Rates in the Near Future (Score:3, Interesting)
For example, a quick peek at the Pittsburgh Tech Council Website shows that since 11/1/2002 there have been 104 IS jobs posted that are still open.
Geekfinder shows 744 positions open in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 434 in Maryland, 799 in Virginia, 936 in New Jersey, and 1322 in New York. So within 4 hours of here, I have over 4300 jobs to search through. Not to mention the local listings which don't make it to Dice.com, and even openings that never make it to the papers but you find out about through friends and contacts. If you can't find a job right now, you're just not looking hard enough. Nuff said. Have a dog biscuit and quite your bitching.
Re:High Turnover Rates in the Near Future (Score:3, Interesting)
My employer may have to lay off a lot of employees in the next few months. Personally, if I get laid off again, I'm acting on the assumption that programming work (in the Portland area) will be VERY hard for me to find. I'm teaching myself Visual Basic and C#, getting certifications (some people actually look for them .. I can't afford to get overlooked by these people), and looking for opportunities to work menial type jobs so I can get insurance until the "real job" comes along. Or until I start my own business. Or until I win the lottery.
Re:High Turnover Rates in the Near Future (Score:3, Insightful)
Not being known for the contribution... (Score:5, Insightful)
It all comes down to how you live your life. (Score:4, Insightful)
fight or flight (Score:5, Insightful)
Employees vs Shareholders (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems to be a vicious circle:
Shareholders no longer want long term growth and stability, they want profits and dividends and they want them now! When they see dips, they panic and demand action.
Companies see only one way to make short term gains - they "sell off" their easiest asset to drop - the employees.
Employees levae, taking knowledge, expertise and experience with them. Remaining employees have greater stresses and workloads, so productivity drops, some leave, some gets sick.
So profits drop, shareholders demand something be done NOW and so....
Re:Employees vs Shareholders (Score:5, Interesting)
Who are these mythical "shareholders" of whom you speak? In reality, they're everyone who has a 401(k) or other investments. Its funny how many of the same people (not a personal remark against the original poster, just a general one) who complain about employee treatment are the first in the crowd to complain when companies don't meet profit expectations (for whatever reason) and scream for them to do "whatever it takes" to get the numbers back.
Just a thought...
Employees vs Shareholders vs 401K (Score:3, Insightful)
So you may not be talking about 401K owners themselves, but rather the folks who run the 401K for the companies - essentially more of the short-term thinkers we disparage.
Shareholders (Score:3, Informative)
Your company puts big heaping hunks of your money into 401k investment firms. In turn, these institutions talk to your boss's boss's boss and tel l them about "market expectations". When your company does not make it's earnings goals, they treaten to unload stocks, which would sink the price and your company. Your boss, and you too, have their savings wiped out.
This is why I did not buy into my company's 401k plan. It's good when it's good, but I got in at a market peak. Did the US economy really grow five fold in the 90s? No, it did not, in fact manufacturing and other important segments contracted as we sold our souls to Chinese imports. John Kenedy senior got out of the market when a shoeboy gave him stock advice. The year was 1929. Today, shoeboy [slashdot.org] is a troll [kuro5hin.org] and his alterego, streetlawer, will be happy to give you stock advice [216.239.39.100]. I wish those two would do something interesting, their advice is evidence that they are underutilized and that we are all have less than we think we do.
The 401k "managers" second guessing my company and creating incentives for my bosses to get rich quick with bonuses, unrealistic expectations, and other silly games has undone many great companies. Look forward to more accounting fraud, bankruptsies and other badness. The last place I worked had it's "grateful" people working 12 hour days to keep their jobs but they got fired anyway. Something really stinks about that.
Everyone's busy (Score:5, Insightful)
I do lots of crap... (Score:5, Informative)
Funny you should ask (Score:2, Interesting)
What's happened to my workload? It's zero. Nobody has any sort of transition plan. Our major customer doesn't even know that he's about to inherit our product.
So my workload now consists of downloading a bunch of open source software to my laptop and catching up some technologies I'm rusty on so that I can bullshit less on my resume (Struts and XSL-FO, primarily). Oh, and stealing every book I can get my hands on.
Disgruntled survivors (Score:5, Interesting)
My conclusion is that once the job picture improves, even a little, techies everywhere are going to be streaming for the door. The survivors are very dissatisfied and would move in a hearbeat if only the could.
Quandries (Score:5, Interesting)
For the past several years, the computer industry has faced a veritable flood of people rushing towards the promise of fast, good salaries -- easy money, so to speak. This has, regrettably, resulted in some pretty poor souls moving into positions that they really aren't suited for.
My company has, like many others, had several rounds of layoffs. We're probably at about 60% of the staffing levels that we were at our heyday. However...
I have to admit that some high percentage (80-90%) of those cuts were completely justified. We lost some really great people -- who were, unfortunately, unqualified for their positions. Sure, there were some few people who lost their jobs for social/political reasons, but for the most part they were few and far between.
A lot can be seen by examining the workload of those who remain after a layoff. If its done well, there will be an inevitable period of floundering as knowledge transfer didn't happen cleanly, followed by a period of shuffling around and maybe rehiring a couple of people who, as it turned out, weren't that disposable after all. Most of those who remain, though, will find themselves working only slightly harder -- validating in a sense the layoffs that took place.
This does bring up another good point. Productivity in the CS arena can vary drastically between people. Studies have shown order of magnitude differences in performance (see some of McConnell's books for good examples here). Many software companies/divisions would be (very much IMO) better off by taking their top 10% producers (architects, designers, coders, et cetera), canning the remainder, substantially increasing the salaries of those who remain, and giving them a support staff (interns, team secretary, et cetera). Something like the surgical team postulated by Brooks in the Mythical Man Month [amazon.com].
Just an opinion, of course, and certainly not one that would foster the current swell of people, but then again, isn't competition supposed to be a good thing, both for the industry as a whole and those who are truly qualified to work well within it? If you're really good, knowing that you could make 80% of your salary by drooling over some VB code is hardly going to inspire you. And if you're doing the latter, well, why bother to excel for a relatively miniscule reward?
Something to think about.
Pros/Cons (Score:5, Interesting)
Not too long after I got into a position with an employer, part of my teammates were let go, some of them with more experience than me. The biggest problem was that the people on my specific project that were let go were more knowledgable than the rest of us.
The effects on the rest of us were dramatic, and not all of the effects were bad. We all had to rise to the challenge and figure out what the hell we had to do to make this thing go, without the benefit of the in house expertise (BTW, we were enhancing a product we authored in house). There were many, many nights where we were here late into the night, more than once past 2:00am just to figure out what was going on.
In the end, we pulled it off and emerged successful on the project, and we were regarded almost as heroes in house. We are regarded as can-do people that can rise to a challenge, but the cost to get there was enormous. We all were worse for the wear.
I have seen a trend when it comes to layoffs that is echoed in the experience I had -- for some oddball reason, it seems the management likes to trim the knowledge base at the wrong points. It stands to reason that, when letting go a very knowledgeable person, someone else must be trained up to fill the shoes of that person. This, in turn costs more money. Which is better, spending the money on a more expensive employee, and make the deadlines on time, or spend about as much to miss the deadline and train up someone new?
Yes, yes, some deadwooding goes on too, but I have seen all to often the productive ones with a higher salary cut loose solely on the basis of immediate salary concerns. I would be interested to know if others have observed the same, or if it's just been a matter of where I have been at the time...
Re:Pros/Cons (Score:3, Informative)
I've certainly seen this before. It's happened to me, and to several other senior people at that company since I left. They encourage people to work hard, praise their efforts, and make it clear how valuable they are during the project. As soon as it's done, they fire the most senior people and replace them with college fresh H1B's. The H1B bit kinda violates the law, but who gives a shit about that anyhow?
In the end, we pulled it off and emerged successful on the project, and we were regarded almost as heroes in house. We are regarded as can-do people that can rise to a challenge
I bet the senior people who were axed before you did the same thing, were regarded as heroes, etc. It's quite probable it'll happen to you too.
Unless you have no choice, working long hours at a company like this is just plain nuts. Your hard work & loyalty will _not_ be rewarded in the long run. After they dump you, they'll hire someone else who'll be telling this same story on /. in 6 months.
Not here.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember the last company I worked at had redundancy even in it's employees. It seemed every position was filled at least twice. Strangest thing. Each person did slightly different things, but if someone actually works the majority of an 8 hour day they can accomplish a lot of stuff.
Don't over-hire. Hire smart people. Hire people that work. 3 people can do what would otherwise take 15. The 3 of us do more than a development group of around 20 people at my old company.. but they aren't a good comparison, and that's why they are out of business now.
Re:Not here.. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is much easier said than done. Have you ever had to interview people to fill a position? I have on several occasions. In one case, it got to the point where "management" was leaning on me to "just hire someone, goddamnit!" I had enough clout at the time to refuse to just hire some jackass, but we had plenty of jackasses coming in to interview. Once you've worked in the industry a while, you'll realize that 90-95% of the people in it are not worth their salary (or the other 5-10% are way underpaid). These massive layoffs are no surprise to me; they are just confirming the fact that management can be foolish, that the economic bubble made companies feel like they must grow to keep from being left behind. I just hope that the 5-10% of people that are actually worth a shit are the ones keeping their jobs.
Re:Not here.. (Score:2)
Yes, actually this is the first position where I don't have hiring authority. Even at my first job, I ascending quickly enough to be the interviewer for programming positions. I've made people cry in interviews. I don't waste time. In 5 minutes, if you have not impressed me, you walk out the door. It's easier to find better programmers now, than a few years ago.
Once you've worked in the industry a while, you'll realize that 90-95% of the people in it are not worth their salary (or the other 5-10% are way underpaid).
I don't think anyone in the IT field is worth their salary. What's the average pay now? $70K? Go look at how much post-doctorate researchers make, and you tell me how a $70K salary is justified. Not that I'm complaining, just disagreeing. I've been in the industry before the
I just hope that the 5-10% of people that are actually worth a shit are the ones keeping their jobs.
Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. The 5-10% of the people should be able to get better jobs because of networking. If I were to ever choose to go back to the bay area, I could find a job. Up in Portland it's much more difficult because I don't know enough people, but if I were to ever lose this job I have a couple places setup from people that I've worked with here that would set me up.
Finding a job in a bad economy means you know the right people who know your skills. Resumes mean less when you are fighting amidst a flood of others who are just as qualified on paper but can't code their way out of a wet paper bag.
There is too much bloat in the IT world, and that's why the current recession is a good thing. We need to weed out the massive amount of dead wood in the industry. All this people who came into being programmers in 98, 99 or whenever just because it was "Good Money" I look skeptical on anyone who has no development experience (whether educational, or hobby, doesn't matter) prior to 1995.
I wish I had more to do today.. meetings cancelled, small application fixes, slooow day, too much slashdot.
Re:Not here.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Um, I'm looking forward to the grad school existence. There's much more to it than salary. For one thing, the typical $30,000/year you'd be giving the university, is waived. For another thing, when you need the time to do academic work, take courses, field research, etc., there won't be a pinhead boss who fails to understand the importance of you doing all that "school stuff".
All in all, it's not so bad making $40k as a postdoc, if you pick up all the perks. Especially in a recession, where you would not have a job anyway!
There seems to be a widespread notion that school is some necessary evil, a stepping stone to something else. Rarely does anyone reflect to me the understanding that education is not something that one can ever "be done with."
yah right! (Score:5, Insightful)
Talk about asking the wrong crowd. Many of the people here (myself included) waste the day here simply because there is nothing else to do. See why we might not be the best ones to ask about overloaded responsibility??
We've been fortunate... (Score:3, Insightful)
The company I work for is one of the few companies that has not been hit by the recession, as a matter of fact we are growing--we have had to almost double the size of our IS/IT and software development, and software testing departments. I think part of the reason our company has been able to grow is because salaries are a little less than market value, but we get semi-annual bonuses based on the company's profitability. (Well, once it was a small pay cut, but given the choice between asking everyone to take a small pay cut for three months, which we got back plus some three months later, or laying off three employees to cover the deficit, I think our company made the right choice). This gives us a huge incentive to make sure the company makes money - in everything from turning out a quality product to keeping our office supply orders reasonable.
I am amazed at the poor attitudes I see in some of the new hires, though--the two people that were hired to help in my department are always grousing about how they make so much less money than they were making at their previous jobs and they can't wait for the recession to be over so they can go find 'real jobs'. Don't they understand that there is a reason the dot-bombs they worked for went out of business? These two new people are currently trying to convince upper management that we are sorely suffering because we are not using a $2000/seat configuration management tool. Let's just gut our company here and then they can move on to gut the next one...
</rant>
Overloaded (Score:4, Interesting)
I was brought in to architect and deploy an ecommerce system. Did I have a staff? No. Could I contract out any of the development? No. It was like this - here's ONE server (running NT I might add), now go build us a system.
So I did. I wiped the machine clean, installed Linux, installed Perl and various libraries, Open SSL, mod_perl, Apache, and then compiled Apache with mod_perl and mod_ssl. I installed MySQL. I installed Tripwire and set up various accounts for people who needed to FTP graphics onto the machine.
Based on the user specs (not written, but vervbally communicated), I designed the entire database schema, wrote all the code for a web-based administration tool, and wrote all the code to launch the ecommerce system for external customers.
The system has been up and running for several months and bringing in over US $20K per day.
Do you think the company's cutting costs? One server and one person who acts as business analyst, system architect, system adminstrator, DBA, and lead developer. Ya think?
A more positive note: After close to a year, I've been granted additional resources (I was able to hire a junior developer) and additional servers. So maybe things are getting better???
Running lean (Score:5, Insightful)
If you have no training for your employees, not because of income, but because none of them can be spared, you are going to have to hire all of your talent new.
If you people are streched so thin, then your going to have burnout and have to replace those workers.
If your facing a 20-30% turnover rate... Your employees will have no loyalty to the company, because the company has no loyalty to them.
Personally, I think that companied that have been in business for a while, say 10-20 years minimum and have built up a staff of experienced employees. Don't really realize how much this will cost them... Traing new employees is expensive for anything except menial jobs...
If your company is dropping a lot of deadweight, that suggests managers that are not doing their jobs... But upper-management doing job cuts across the board are not doing their jobs properly either.
When the big name business schools changed over from teaching business from looking 5, 10, and 20 years into the future and started concentrating on quarterly income it was a sad day.
Trai
It's short-term (Score:2, Insightful)
I've seen four layoffs in a year and a half, and I know that my productivity has plummetted each time. I have maybe half as many "good days" cranking out code, for a couple months afterwards. But, what code I do write is generally better targetted at immediate revenue opportunities.
I'm interested in sustainable productivity gains, and those mostly come from growing at the right rate in the first place - hire-hire, rather than hire-hire-hire-hire-fire-fire.
Outsourcing Blues (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't mind the extra work so much, but what really bothers me is the attitude of the customer and its affect on me. Users are pissed off that it takes more than a day for them to be seen as opposed to an hour or so, and they have a very negative attitude towards us now. This is a major problem in my eyes because I find it harder to wake up in the morning and feel motivated to work. I really dread what possible long term affects this may have if it continues like this.
Related news: AMD cutting 2,000 jobs worldwide (Score:2, Offtopic)
I am soooooo lucky... (Score:2)
Sorry, I can't really give a lot more details than this... =(
Wrong formula. (Score:4, Informative)
Fewer Employees + Same Work + Greater Threat of Layoff + Derth of Other Jobs = Higher Productivity
You see, there are additional contributing factors to the equation that offer significant motivation to the Fewer Remaining Employees. If you aren't more productive, there are numerous others that are presently unemployed who will happily be more productive. Basically, if you don't watch your ass, you're out of there!
Productivity (Score:5, Insightful)
Oddly enough..it consumes more. (Score:4, Informative)
Some might complain that the military has been getting some phat bonuses, but do you know the President Bush also cut about 75,000 people from the military to do this? I just ask that you don't forget the military when is comes to these issues.
Dilbert hits it on the head..... (Score:3, Funny)
Gotta watch out when you overload an already stressed workforce....
I would hope it's obvious (Score:5, Interesting)
Then the bubble bursts, economy's hurting everyone, layoffs start at the big companies. Our 5 programmers aren't worried - their small company is still running strong.
Suddenly two bad quarters in a row, sales are down, cashflow gets weak, and suddenly the company is worried about being able to write everyone's paychecks. 2 of our 5 programmers, who might have had 2 or 3 bad marks (previously thought of as "minor") on their performance reviews, get canned. Our 3 remaining programmers start thinking, "Oh crap! I could be next!" Suddenly there's a real push for productivity and visibility from our programmers. Not only were they doing %40 more work, but they now make sure everyone knows about it.
Wouldn't you?
Scary thing is, if a company can scare employees into working harder with laying off a few, seemingly overpaid pieces of "deadwood", it certainly make business sense.
Hits a little too close to home for some readers out there, doesn't it?
-AAAWalrus
Increase in Efficiency (Score:2, Insightful)
How do they measure productivity? (Score:3, Insightful)
This makes me wonder what measurement they used to quantify 'productivity'. My guess is that it is somehow related to the number of businesses, more like a per capita amount rather than an absolute value.
If so, I can understand the value increasing as companies who were riding the dot.com wave crashed -- like thinning the herd raises the average strength of the remaining beasts.
However, I also think that it's simplistic to assume that the staff who remain were slacking prior to the layoffs. More likely, they remain because they *weren't* the ones who were slacking. At least, I hope that's the way it is.
No easy answer to this problem (Score:2)
Perhaps if corporations used the "employed for life" strategy that the federal government practices, they would alleviate potential stressors to their employees and avoid the possibility of someone busting into the office and shooting everything but the water cooler.
The ultimate problem is, when corporations treat people as if they're disposable, they feel disposable. No one ever gets laid off in Japan. And there haven't been ANY fatal shootings in offices there since right after World War II.
One thing I don't see going down... (Score:5, Insightful)
Granted, times are lean, but during layoffs at my last company, I saw more top people still doing well. All us employees lost all our stock while the top execs got new stock and pay raises with the new company that bought us. My co-worker called it 'gift wrapping a turd'. How true.
I'm sure this is a very unpopular view, but I personally feel that if the belt needs to be tightened, we all need to do it. Not just a few.
My new company pays less and has me working more - like those in the article. I'm not sure how wise this is since this makes all of us here more stressed and burnt out. Sure, we're more productive, but people can only handle so much rhetoric, 50/60 hr weeks for 2/3 of the price before they just say 'screw this'.
One thing this has done for me is to galvanize my resolve to do something on my own. I personally still feel money is out there to be made. Epecially if you have good talents that Joe-first-year-college-dropout-100k-webmaster can't match. There will always be a need for people that know their stuff. Question is, will one be able to find it?
It doesn't really matter, does it? (Score:4, Insightful)
(pardon the Katzian reference)
Shortly after Sep11,2001, I wondered how soon it would be before people got over the genuine shock and horror of what happened, stop being friendly to each other in solidarity, and start in with the Bin Laden jokes. I knew it wouldn't be long. Sure enough, about 2 months after it happened, I saw my first Tshirt with Bin Laden's face in the crosshairs. Sure, there is natural bad sentiment towards someone who did something that tragic, but the REAL gravity of what happened dissipated quickly. It was back to NASCAR and lawsuits.
Granted, this isn't true of everyone, but overall we as a country are back to business as usual. (unfortunately) I think the same can be said of the tech industry, at least from my experience. Sure, we have trimmed budgets, and cut the work force, but I really don't see any difference in how people look at their jobs as a result of that. There are still lazy people who do just enough to get by. After a layoff, people scurry around, and try to prove that they are valuable, but that subsides quickly. No sooner has the sigh of relief that you still have a job been breathed than you just settle down in your chair and get back to same old routine.
Maybe I am a bit jaded, because I was able to get a job a month after the company I worked for went under. But that was 2 years ago, on the front side of the massive meltdown. I was lucky to get with a large company that has had only one layoff since then, and it was relatively small. But I see things going the same as they were when I got here. In general, people aren't worried about losing their jobs. Not that you need to be worried about losing your job in order to do a good job, but it doesn't seem like there is an urgency anymore. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
Jeez, where am I going with this? Well, I kind of follow a Zen style of work. I do my job, I do it as good as I can. If I get laid off, I get laid off. I have confidence that I can do my job as good or better than my coworkers, and if not, then at least I did my best. I don't do just what it takes to get by, I try not to settle in for the long haul and cruise. I have been here 2 years, and I am still trying to improve myself and my skills. This skill is lost on a lot of people, and I think it is a valuable one. I think if you are working in a manner just to keep your job, then you aren't being genuine. Be genuine, and just be. There is no prize to keep your eye on. Develop yourself, improve yourself, because you are the asset, and others will see that.
Chinese (Score:5, Informative)
First of all, the guy's handwriting is Not Very Good, or at least he was writing in a calligraphic style which I've never seen before
http://www.mandarintools.com/faq.html#cris
That same page says that the story about "crisis equals danger + opportunity" is not true. "Danger" and "Opportunity" were not the original meanings of those characters. The web page does not say, and I do not know, what the original meanings are. I speculate that "Danger" originally meant "guarded" or "careful" and "Opportunity" originally meant "craft, intelligence", but don't quote me on that.
I am inclined to agree with the web page and place this under the "interesting coincidences of the language which are taken way out of proportion" category.
Managing for the Long Term (Score:2)
Obviously things are pretty tough in this industry right now, so there is definitely no hiring going on here. That means that if somebody quits, the rest of us have to pick up the slack. I'm not complaining, mind you, because, as LiamRandall said, I'm also happy to have a job.
I think that the interesting thing about this company is that when times are flush, they don't hire willy-nilly. Every proposed position is scrutinized to make sure that a new hire is really needed. Generally, that means that even in good times the rate of hiring is not all that high, yet this is an 18,000 employee company. The executives here make no bones about the fact that they are managing the company looking ahead 5 to 10 years, not one or two quarters. That also means that they recognize that the high tech industry runs in cycles and to lay off employees means playing catch-up in terms of training and hiring when the low cycle ends.
So, for the near term, as the tech economy slumps, we work harder to deal with attrition, but when the economy recovers (as it will), we'll be a step ahead of other companies that have to scramble to hire and train new employees. The obvious consequence is that the stock price takes a beating because it appears that we aren't being as "proactive" as other short-term managed companies in reducing costs.
-h-
Well... (Score:2)
I suppose that if by the phrasing of the question you mean to imply in comparison to the pre dot-com bust period the answer is no. I've always given 100%, so nobody can ask more of me. Good times or bad, if you are the go-to guy (not the goto guy) you can have all the responsibility you can handle. What's different now is that if I left my job, I can count on being unemployed for a long period.
Move away from tech altogether (Score:4, Insightful)
The opportunity... (Score:5, Insightful)
If, however, you don't care too much what your company does, and you just need a salary, a paycheck - then why do you do it? You just need the salary, the paycheck, to pay bills and buy necessities, right? And to purchase some entertainment from time to time?
Then why do you need to pay those bills? OK, so you want some electricity. You need to eat. You want to enjoy some entertainment now and then. How much of this can you provide yourself? And how much entertainment (movies, DVDs, vegging out to TV, buying new CDs) do you *need*? I mean, do you buy any of this stuff to counteract stress from work? Then wouldn't structuring your life differently result in less need for entertainment?
So learn to become more self-reliant for those things. Grow some of your own food if you can. Install some solar panels, use an energy co-op instead of an energy company, learn some trade skills, the sorts of things that people need to build the necessities of life.
I'm not saying go back to the trees. I'm not even saying do everything I say. I'm just tossing out food for thought...
I think many people have a job they don't like just because they think "that's the way things are, that's the nature of work - work is dull and hard, a necessary responsibility." But I think work should enrich the spirit - work should not be that thing you have to do so that you can live when you get off work. Work should be your life! You should enjoy it! If you don't enjoy your work, the answer is not "well, I gotta earn a paycheck somehow". It should be "ok, so I don't enjoy my current employment - what might I enjoy instead?"
It's an economist thang..... (Score:2)
But you all may disagree...
My Experience (Score:2, Interesting)
Slack is necessary (Score:2, Informative)
A blurb from the book quoted in the review:
Read the review [slashdot.org] for more info.
Extra hats... (Score:2, Interesting)
I was an "Automation Analyst" for a mainframe-based system a few years back, when upper management decided that they could "fix" all our IT problems by outsourcing the datacenter (our management was always 5-10 years behind on the business trend curve). When this was announced, almost a third of the datacenter staff bailed right away (the severence packages they offered were pretty insubstantial unless you were a lifer). Those that remained were interviewed by the outsourcing company and offered jobs or the option of waiting it out until the cut-off.
My ex-boss (one of the first to bail) offered me a position at his new gig, and I negotiated what I thought was the best of both worlds; I would continue to work my old job until the cut-off, collect severance, then go and work for my ex-boss at a substantial increase in pay.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
What followed was six months of hell. Because my background included a little bit of everything, instead of just doing my job for those six months, I did my job, I helped out in operations, I helped out tech support (including network, security, and some really nasty legacy systems), and when I wasn't otherwise occupied, I worked with the outsourcers explaining where the bodies were buried. I developed insomnia, a nervous twitch and grey hair (in my 30's!) by the time I and the rest of the hold-outs were finally laid off and the outsourcing company officially took over.
On the plus side, it was a good kick in the metaphorical seat; because of that little trauma I finally got up off my duff and finished my BS and now I'm working on my masters.
Though I do still take a little guilty pleasure when I hear from former coworkers about the stunningly bad job the outsourcing company has been doing...
Corporate America is filled with sycophants (Score:2, Insightful)
Old Old Trick (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not a reflex "Proud To Be Union"-bumper-sticker-posting moron, but Corporate Greed is the greatest of those two evils.
Corporate Greed knowns no shame. And since Enron, it knows no fear. Sure - this happened in the past, but they (being greedy corporate officers) had to at least hide it - which made it less noticable or insulting. Airlines in the 80s did similar things on a smaller scale. Today we have CEOs that lay-off thousands of employees just to "make the company more 'nimble'" (Jack Welsh, of General Electric) who then -on the way to his retirement mansion- starts stuffing his pockets with money while asking "You don't mind, do you?"
So - here's a bit of help for the greedy corporate butt-pirates out there:
Don't hire anyone to a permanent position. Get all your employees as contractors or, better yet, as "temps".
If possible, hire half to 2/3rds the employees you need, and then guilt/guile/corral/cajole them into doing the work of two people. Make it well known that they need the paycheck more than you need the job done.
Don't forget to line your pockets.
Make sure your HR person knows how to write the job description you post so that you can easily tell the few experienced applicants that they are overqualified (read that as "cost too much") and make the other applicants feel inferior, so they feel lucky to have the job, don't complain, and work harder for less money.
Quality? Fuck it. Honesty? Laugh at that, then fuck it. Quantity? Fuck it too. Employee moral? Fuck that hard. Money? Money is god. And you, being the High Priest, cannot suffer to allow anyone other than you to have god. So make sure you take god away from them and put god back in the temple (your pocket) where it belongs.
Oh shit, there goes the Karma.....
Are there really fewer IT jobs? (Score:3, Insightful)
layoff strategies (Score:3, Interesting)
Rather than making shots in the dark, why not use a survivor-style method of getting rid of people? Why not have tribal council once a week to vote someone off? That would give a person motivation to find themselves useful, otherwise those around the person would give the axe. Justice in its finest form, sounds good to me.
Higher productivity for now... (Score:5, Insightful)
Companies who don't overwork their employees in this manner will find that it's easier for them to find top notch talent as people seek to jump ship from companies that do overwork them. The companies who do overwork their employees discover in the meantime that they have a number of key defections and that these people end up being replaced by less qualified people, becuase the best people won't put up with them. So they go out and hire more people because the less qualified people can't do the job as effectively as one qualified person.
So, they eventually end up with a large work force, some of whom have, in the mean time, become quite good at their jobs. Then they realize that they've now got all this dead weight again. Layoffs happen.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Smart companies show their employees some loyalty in the bad times because it will be reciprocated in the good times. This leads to an overall more qualified and stable staff. That leads to increased productivity in the long run.
or so my theory goes...
It's tough, I'm glad I like my job (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, one of my employees and /. regular, Mr. eDrugtrader, could probably comment at a developer level, and we'll see if he gets up early enough to see this post and comment. But I know that from a management perspective, while we're fairly productive with what we do, we have also had to say "no" to a massive number of projects, including projects that came from the CEO or were marked "necessary." Everyone is frustrated -- our CEO has huge plans, but he doesn't have the staff to do it. Or at least, things are getting done at a snail's pace. One of my employees has a backlog of about 2 years of projects -- great for job security, but it can be frustrating and overwhelming. Here are some bits of the fallout:
Ghost work (Score:3, Informative)
Ghost work [wordspy.com]
"After a round of layoffs or firings, the work that used to be done by the former employees and that must now be handled by the remaining staff."
From the Man Keeping You Down (Score:3, Interesting)
Except Problem 1) New Wafer plant is opening to produce all those shiny new Pentium 4s. Problem 2) They fellas over at AMD are puttin the heat on you and you company wants "increase market segment share" so they ask your division to hit overdrive in producing new processors and megahertz.
So we are increasing workload and performance and have also have no people to put in our shiny new Fab. To say we are understaffed at the moment is an understatement. and the current staff is nearing burnout. Then the stock options become worthless and your incentive for busting ye olde hiney is gone. Its a vicous cycle of more work, less people. Then some people burnout and there is even more work and even less people. The same people who covered 1 plant must now staff 2 factories. Add in the switch to 300 mm wafers and our energy is sapped. Something is going to give sooner or later. Look for it sooner (and employers, do us a favor--hire an Intel process engineer and release us from bondage!).......
I don't think this is a unique situation--lets be honest-chip sales is where Intel makes its money and we support the rest of the goons around here. One would think we could get an exemption to the hiring freeze, but nooooooo. Aparently that half billion dollars per week we bring in isn't enough (7 billion per quarter or 13 weeks)--
CEOs always fund there little pet projects by squeezing the profitable divisions.
And since I'm posting about work--views do nessecarily reflect those of the Intel corporate yes-men.
Dumb article title (Score:3)
The real title of the article should be:
"Fear Of Losing Job + Same Work = Higher Productivity"
Fear is the greatest motivator.
rewarding mediocrity (Score:5, Insightful)
lesson learned:: do not be truthful about how much you can cut.
Management lays off people. Honest groups Survivors pick up the pieces and work harder to keep the company going. Deceptive groups people do not pick up the pieces and intentionally let projects slip and service quality drop. Management transfers people from Honest Teams into Deceptive Teams to cover their "losses" OR lays off people in honest teams so they can hire people back into the deceptive teams.
lesson learned:: do not pick up the pieces. Let management feel the pain of reductions.
This was also true in the good times.
A person who does exemplary work all the time is expected to always do exemplary work. The one day they come in with a cold and do average work they are criticized for laziness.
However, A person who always does the bare minimum on a day that they are unusually focused and produces average work (drank Jolt not water) gets praised for being a real go-getter! and gets a bonus for such wonderful work.
Every time we are asked to do our best and do so, we are punished. Every time other groups perform below average they are rewarded.
Prioritize! (Score:5, Informative)
While the added work load can be overwhelming at times, I find it rewarding to have a broader responsibility for other areas of the company that I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to be involved with.
If you are in a similiar situation, I have some recommendations for coping with the challenges of handling your increased work load.
Good luck!
I'll say this... (Score:5, Informative)
I might also add that I think people with colleagues that have been axed work harder and take on more responsibility with no additional pay just to try and keep their own jobs. In the end what suffers is their health and the quality of their work.
Fuck productivity (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems to me that a high quality of life is incompatible with high productivity, that all this productivity crap is making us lose our humanity. We are expected to be pleased that productivity is constantly increasing, but I'm not. Anthropologists claim that hunter-gatherers spent four hours a day "working" and the rest of the time they were goofing off, telling stories, having sex, etc. Oh, how far we have fallen from those days!
become self employed (Score:3, Insightful)
Turns out there are alot of self important/proclaimed "artists" for web design firms around my area and their customers are sick of the poor turnaround time and lacking professionalism, long story short I'm eating their lunch. Yeah it's mind numbing work, effortless, and boring though it's helped me come to a realization. Work to live, not live to work.
So in my free time I work on my Alphas and write firmware. That comes -after- I spend time with my friends and 'live'. Guys, You're life outside of work must be more engaging than work itself otherwise you'll always have this split loyalty. Fuck what you do for a living. Make money any way you can and live your life.
If the economy swings the other way and I can get a job doing what I used to do. I'll have to seriously reconsider leaving what I'm doing now for that instead. After all, It's just work.
Peter
The future? (Score:3, Interesting)
However, I don't think the trimming went too well. I lost my job, became a contractor, and then did two contracts where extremely expereinced developers were needed. The companies in question didn't have people to fill these positions - so they spent more on me (on one contract the company probably paid 250% to 225% of what it'd have cost to have me as a regular employee).
Yet I've run into complete incompetents with stable jobs. Some of them the very people whose bad code and designs I had to fix.
The downsizings weren't that rational, from what I've seen. I dearly wish more of the deadwood had been cut, but I keep running into it.
IT seems to have a pretty high turnover rate - and I'd hate to think how recent grads are doing. When the economy improves, when companies add to their IT staff, what will they be left with?
My guess? A mix of the high-powered people who managed to survive the downturn, the lucky, and the improperly retained incompetents. The glow will be off of IT, so I don't expect people to rush back.
Then what will hiring be like?
Re:The future? (Score:3, Interesting)
Hiring policies (and firing policies) really don't seem to be rational. There's not a sense of vision - there's a mix of get-what-you-can and short-term expectations.
I do admit I'm sort of enjoying the car wreck. In my area people are catching on to the need for talent (in fact the interview that landed me my current contract was conducted by two people with technical skills). I hope this spreads nationwide.
Voodoo Economics (Score:3, Interesting)
Fewer Employees + Same Work = Lower Morale
Lower Morale = Lower Productivity
Lower Morale + More Employees = Same Productiviy
Wash, rinse, repeat.
It's the wonders of capitalism. (Score:3, Interesting)
The bottom line is the bottom line.
A stratification class I am in, demonstrated some rather alarming figures regarding the corporate elite, as compared to the corporate prole. In 2001, Lawrence Ellison made $706 million dollars for the year. Thats almost $2 million a -day-, 160 times that of the highest paid CEO in 1950 (Charles Wilson of General Motors). "The average CEO of a major corporation made $11 million in 2001, including salary, bonus and other compensation such as exercised stock options"
If workers pay increased with inflation, and productivity gains, average hourly earnings would be $21.71, not $14.33 that they are today. In fact, workers make on average, 9% -less- than they did in 1973, if you adjust for inflation. Minimum wage earners, earn 38% less than 1968 workers. "It takes more than 3 jobs at the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour -- $10,712 a year -- to support a family." Since the last minimum wage increase, Congress has raised their salaries by more than $16,400, and have another $5000 raise pending.
But I got off topic. The GATT, NAFTA, IMF and the World Bank are all attempts to allow the shipping of jobs to other, cheaper countries. It makes business sense to move that factory in El Paso, across the river to Juarez, and go from paying $8/hr, to $8/day for employees. Throw in corrupt officials, less stringent environmental controls, the dropping of benefits and retirement, and you have a vastly cheaper production cost.
Furthermore, if executives can shuffle more workload onto a smaller workforce, in an economy that has a large available workforce (too many of you damn CS ppl out there :), those who want to protest, can be replaced. So people bear the brunt, because they know they will be replaced. But People have no collective long-term memory. They remember when their skills were in demand, and they could set the bars that they wanted. Desks made from legos, workstations that pivot slightly over the course of the day, nerf guns strapped to their chairs, Aqua Joe in the water cooler.. People also got lazy. They knew that if they slacked off, the job'd still be there, because they were indispensible. Unfortunately, things changed.. and it seems that nobody remembers the 1980s. When there was struggle for the good paying jobs, and good paying jobs meant you worked your ass off.
Hell, computer professionals now get to realize the crush teachers have always felt. More and more work, without any added compensation.
Quotes are from a commentary by Holly Sklar, co-author of Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us [raisethefloor.com] and can be reached via email: hsklarATaolDOTcom (she had it at the end of the commentary, so i figured i'd share)
Re:Welcome to the real world (Score:5, Funny)
From a different perspective I can generally agree with you.
As a functional analyst, there are many data application related initiatives that I *could* do myself. However, the technicals have a fit if any functional proposes to even make their own analysis tools.
Solution: I just do it myself and have stopped bothering to bring it up to the techies. When a result is needed, I have the answer in seconds instead of weeks, i.e., I do not have to print out report after report and "hand jam" them into a spreadsheet when a few simple select queries in Access on my desktop will do.
BTW, the last time I had a request for a new report, I submitted the PCR and provided, for my poor "over worked" coworkers, an "example" of the output I was looking for along with an Access query that would provide the correct result.
The technical lead came back with "if the functional has already developed it, he should be the developer for the PCR". My reply that it was just an example, not in Oracle but in Access, as stated plainly on the request, I am not a developer I am a functional, I don't know *your* system, seemed to just bounde off the tech lead.
Essentially, she wanted the tech group to get the charge number, hours, money and the solution. The techies finally completed the report generator in a few months, with me testing.
No thanks, I will just do my own data mining. If I had my way our entire "tech staff" would be replaced by 3 UNIX admins to keep track of some file servers while the rest of us do the real work.
Re:well.. (Score:3, Interesting)
And management has to realize that sometimes (and very often with sysadminning), the guy spending 90% of his day dicking around is the most productive guy they have!
A "lazy" sysadmin who spends 90% of his day with his feet up on the desk while alternating between Bugtraq, Slashdot, and a certain USENET newsgroup for monks, is probably doing a vastly better job than a "busy" one who's running around the office with six pagers all beeping at once.
Scared? Melancholy? or just plain burned out? (Score:3, Insightful)
Two years ago, I knew that hard work and initiative would be rewarded with bonuses, raises, promotion. Today I know that no matter how productive you are, there is no chance of any such recognition, and the best most productive model employee has more immunity from "downsizing" than the least productive clock-watcher.
krinsh writes:
Sounds good, but what if I am here because this was what I had chosen to do for a living, and I used to enjoy it, but now cutbacks, overwork, and micromanagement (as managers try to protect their own jobs) are making it more and more difficult to drag myself out of bed each morning.
I could quit, but unless I want to move out of state, there are no job openings in my field here. Even my quitting would not create a job opening in my field -- few companies are hiring to fill open positions, including positions created by employees who quit or are fired for cause.
It used to be that if your job turned into a nightmare you could always quit and find a new one. These days, few employees can afford to quit, and the employers know this and take full advantage of it.Sure, I may in a position to leave when things level off or improve, but what is there to keep the abused employee sane and productive until then?