Warning: Life Under Construction

Yesterday at work we experienced another shining example of our new bosses trying to save a dollar today while losing five dollars tomorrow. My friend turned in her one-week notice to her boss. She said that she wasn't about to give them a proper two week notice because of the way they have been firing people. Because she has been there for over 10 years, she is entitled to four weeks vacation -- or so it used to be. Today, she was called in to her bosses office and told of a new policy that has yet to be formally announced. Starting yesterday, she needed to work three months before she could earn her first week of vacation. There are a lot of details that powers-to-be have yet to answer about this new business practice. For now, we think this latest change is to try and discourage people from quitting this month while taking advantage of their vacation time.

I have no doubt that this rule will save the company money. I have no doubt that there is more to come. In the past couple of days, we have heard of a plan to replace most of the hourly workers with temporary help. Apparently, experienced employees who are dedicated to doing their job doesn't matter. This gives us the impression the salesmen and bean counters running this operation don't have a clue about what it takes to get the product out the door. Right now, each hourly person has several weeks of training and years of experience which enables them to do their job effectively and efficiently. To replace them with unskilled personnel means an increase in product defects and waste from having to redo each a production run. But, like I said before, our new owners are fixated on saving a dollar today even if it means costing the company several dollars tomorrow.

UPDATE: 7 Jan 2009 - Our Human Resource acts.