[lbo-talk] employment

Duncan M. Clark dclark at ptd.net
Sat Sep 6 02:31:42 PDT 2003


On Friday, September 05, 2003 at 5:59:37 PM, Chuck0 wrote:


> On the flip side, my 71-year-old father is trying to stay at his
> corporate job as long as possible before he retires or is forced out. He
> told me this afternoon that everybody at his company is being
> overworked, because the company is trying to cut costs without hiring
> people. The bad bosses compound the bad working atmosphere. My father
> works for a trucking company and he says that the situation is the same
> at many of the suppliers and contractors he works with.

Yeah, I've heard the same thing from plenty of truckers -- semi operators as well as local drivers doing runs in house trucks.

Granted, swapping tales of management folly is loading dock custom, but for a good 2+ yrs. my dock has been a pretty rich source of understaffing stories. Which I could generally match since, shortly after the tech bubble burst, my employer -- a printing co. -- announced a hiring freeze, then a wage freeze, in its financial printing (i.e. my) division. Then came workforce reductions and plant closings; meanwhile no raises, no job postings, nearly zero chance of upward mobility. Then they restructured job grades -- a major screwing in the interest of "site-to-site consistency." The initial layoffs were followed by a steady trickle of small ones, seemingly every other month; folks w/20+ yrs. "escorted" to their lockers and off the premises -- discreetly, of course -- and the rest of us spread a little thinner.

At first, there was a refreshing epidemic of cynicism out on the floor, but that soon devolved into sour grumbling, sort of bitching-by-rote. Really, there was little outright anger at the mounting indignities -- not many could afford it. It's sobering to watch how quickly people will adapt to being shit on.

And the understaffing was tolerable, at first; since most warehouse jobs are incredibly boring and insult virtually anyone's abilities, a few more responsibilities can break up the monotony and even seem momentarily challenging. Anything to make the day go faster.

But: the 50 hr. weeks became 60+, breaks and lunches got skipped. And financial printing -- especially the fulfillment end of the business -- is intensely deadline-driven. "BTW, starting Monday you're on permanent rotating shifts -- 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, every two weeks." Etc. etc. Rushing to finish that Excel template for your supervisor, researching a year-old inventory transaction for some prick CSR who just phoned from Chicago, and it's 4 a.m., and you've already been off the clock for an hour, and really you're only a forklift driver anyway, and the pay is shit, so what the fuck?

Basically, after four years at the place, I just bailed. "Uh, I'm not gonna make it today. Or anymore, actually." That was last month. Now I'm just de-stressing, trying to get back into a sleeping schedule that doesn't risk psychosis, waiting for my the mail carrier to deliver the "separation packet" so I can cash in my measly 401(k) asap and catch up on some bills.


> To which I replied: "There's an old saying: Overtime is scabbing on the
> unemployed."

Labor Day headline of our local paper (Lancaster, PA New Era): "We Are the Best Workers in the World." Actual story: U.S. workers are 4th in efficiency -- "exploding the image of American efficiency," as the BBC put it. But we put in more hrs./year, which is an interesting definition of "best."

-- Best regards,

Duncan mailto:dclark at ptd.net



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