Crabcutter

How far should we go? For the sake of profit? Must we let our jobs go? Should we accept anything the CEO’s are throwing at us, for the sake of profit? Who determines how much profit is enough to keep a company going? How far can competition take us, morally, what kind of restrictions may be imposed on our employment agreements, after being signed or before even being signed, for the sake of competition, free market principles, productivity and sustainability? Do we need to develop new values? A new moral? Or do we stick to the well known ones like we used to practise before (as our parents did) like: loyalty will be rewarded, job security is normal, one who goes the extra mile will get some benefits. Appreciate your views.

Rated De

How does one extract infinite profit from finite resource? Our economic model is set up to suggest you can continue into infinity, but everyone knows that land is finite, the planet itself and its resources are finite, yet we continue the charade.

Henry Ford said over 100 years ago and i paraphrase;

'Unless I pay my workers enough to buy my cars I eventually have no business'

Globalisation has seen organised labour face ever downward pressure on terms and conditions, the percentage share of the profit pie awarded to CEOs growing ever since the Chicago school of economics and Milton Friedman linked share price performance to executive remuneration. The change in the last thirty years is staggering: Wealth concentrated in fewer hands.The political establishment captured by commercial interest does not see any other way, their continued salary depends on it. Ironically one person's income is another's spending. People need people, companies are people not individual units of labour cost as taught at MBA courses the world over..Companies cannot understand that ultimately driving down salary eventually reduces their revenues, as discretionary spending is curtailed. Politicians are lost and scream 'get a better paying job' and 'spend more'. Those jobs long since globalised. People have listened though borrowing enormous amounts of debt to keep up. This has limits and arguably we are approaching that limit in most western economies. Add in aging populations, retirements and increasing health care costs and a new way must be found. Ultimately though 'the poor will suffer what they must', as the system is controlled for the benefit of the few. Promises will be broken until the model itself breaks from exhaustion, until then more of the same.

For my mind, I listen to my grandparent's stories of the depression, when neighbours helped each other, people were resourceful and respect drove relationships is something we will eventually re-discover.

South West Airlines have consistently proven that respect when truly two way does far more to improve company performance than any HR/IR attempt to lower unit cost. Air New Zealand showed it too.

However adversarial IR models mirror the modern world, every person an economic agent, every interaction a transaction and the only way to win is have more. Somewhere along the way we collectively abandoned our being a society and became an economy.

Whether it is an asteroid, weather related or simply the consistent collapse of fiat currency and empire, one thing is for sure, history never changes: People, societies and empire rise, stagnate and collapse.
Replaced by something better, something more inclusive. Around 80 years later when the lessons are forgotten the generation gone and the new breed say it's different this time, you know it isn't different this time, just a case of wash rinse and repeat...Man has never proven very good at managing himself.

zerograv

Rated De

Very Good ! Spot on !


Edited to add ...

We leave in times in which Corporations regard people as nothing but a source of revenue, a resource to be exploited to the max extent possible. As such, people are regarded as an ilimited resource.

Start Fore

Look no further than Cathay Pacific Airways.

When I joined the best part of two decades ago it was probably THE most coveted flying job in aviation with an excellent package and a tough entry process to match.

Now it's ruined. They've been chipping away ever since and now only losers or low hour snowflakes join. The airline will probably go under within the next 5 years. Due to short term cost cutting/management bonuses.

I can't think of a single colleague who doesn't regret their decision in joining this toxic airline.

The polar opposite to SWA and ANZ.

Thanks to the beancounters. Well done.

Rated De

If it is any consolation it is rampant in every industry.

• MBA drives decisions. Unit cost to be reduced at all costs. These programs originated in Ivy league business schools and they are the badge of entry into corporate. They spread like cane toads.
• To drive the agenda reams of accountants count what happened yesterday, then let you know tomorrow what next week may look like. They support the MBA matrix.
• HR an 'industry' full of adversarial conflict generating wastes. Their 'job' to execute the said strategy.
• Supported by teams of nodding heads, known as consultants businesses choke under the weight of administration
• Whole companies forget what it is they do. (to an MBA it matters nil)

It s through finance, through academia and pretty much everything that ever made anything.


How the west was lost...

gearlever

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