U.S. corporations ranging from General Motors Corp. to Whirlpool Corp. announced at least 40,000 job cuts in December, and the month is on track to rank as the year's busiest for layoffs.
It used to be taboo to fire people between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. That isn't the case anymore -- in fact, many companies now push to trim employment during December to meet year-end budget goals, job recruiters and company officials said. ...
A slowing economy isn't solely to blame. As the reluctance to dismiss people during the holidays eroded in the 1990s, "it's become quite the opposite" and many companies actually prefer to give notice to workers at the end of the year, [John] Challenger, [chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a job-placement firm] said. ...
A decade of relentless "downsizing" and the popularity of management techniques that preach continuous improvement have made companies more willing to unveil cuts at any time, said Kathleen Sinclair, president of Detroit-based Executive Recruiters International.
"Back in the 1980s, they might have thought 'Let's not do it during Christmas, let's wait three weeks,'" she said. "Now the attitude is, 'Let's do it now.'"
Carl
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