Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 28, 2021

You are giving some of your employees the freedom to pursue new opportunities.

It seems Mike is seeing writing on the wall.

The only question in my mind is whether Mike is among those to be “downsized?”

It was replaced by that abomination ‘rightsizing’…… apparently the right size is always down. :/

First the smoke…

American industry certainly did downsize in the mid-90s. Maybe the service industry wasn’t affected that much, but electronics and heavy manufacturing all but disappeared. China did ok, though.

Uh oh, indeed. When you start hearing the word downsizing anywhere in the company, it’s time to brush up your resume and pay off your credit cards.

Just call it the euphemism that eventually replaced it: “Right-sizing.”

Having lived through the downsizing trend of the early to mid- 90s I can attest to its reality. Yes, manufacturing is where the biggest hits were but it became a management craze even in the service sector. Back then weren’t considered a good manager unless you fired a large number of staff and workers. ( I was working at an internationally known med school)

Our Asst Dean of Finance euphemistically called it “Right Sizing”. Some managers gained good favor from their bosses by shedding large departments, from IT to groundskeeping, and contracting the work to outside companies. These companies would hire the same staff, often paid a lot less, had fewer benefits and no retirement plans. I saw 25 year employees cleaning out lockers and clearing desks…

Other times – older employees were let go, the job descriptions tweaked slightly, and newer, younger employees were brought in to take these new jobs.

Good times… and we blew the chance to repeat it by not electing HC?

Our state’s highway department did a great job, then we got a Republican governor who thought privatizing everything was the holy grail. Employees got expensive buyouts, work went to out of state contractors who paid minimum wage, no benefits or retirement, shoddy work with corners cut. These were for-profit contractors, I couldn’t figure out how that could be better than a state agency which is basically a not for profit.

Jack Welch became CEO of GE in 1981. People gave him the nickname of “Neutron Jack” for getting rid of people while leaving buildings intact. He hated the term “downsizing.” He believed what he was doing was “rightsizing.”

“Market Adjustment.”

When politicians worship at the altar of the stock market ( as in every damn president since Raygun) the results shouldn’t be surprising. The last president who actually cared about the non-rich and non-powerful was Carter.

I sense bad news coming for Kim.

Lived though this in 2013, change of ownership promised big things for Me…until it didn’t. Oh well time to retire.

Get rid of the well-paid. Replace with “Contract workers”! Save a bundle, watch shareholder values rise!