Cutting Back Without Layoffs

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  1

  willika888

  01/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Cutting Back Without Layoffs

  I work for a small computer services company. The work, environment and culture are the best I have ever experienced. Leadership really cares about the employees. In our 20 year history, numerous actions have been taken to avoid layoffs including the president not getting a salary for several months.
  
  Leadership takes a proactive approach to slow sales. They seek feedback from employees on cost-saving measures. Recently, the president gave up his paid parking spot. That got everyone's attention. The 401k match has been suspended. Performance increases are on hold for the lst quarter. Business lunches, if truly required, are from only the most reasonable, good quality restaurants.
  
  If further cuts are needed, then an across-the-board pay cut is likely. My co-workers and I don???t want a pay cut for economic reasons. Yet, we will support leadership in this action to keep the company going. The president???s motto is ???We will sell our way out???. We may all even end up in sales/sales support if that???s what it takes. It???s a great place to work. We want to stay in business.

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  ndlicht1

  01/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Cutting Back Without Layoffs

  I am laid off before and in my industry, physical security systems solutions, its almost reached epidemic proportions.
  
  The result is lessoned services, lessoned sales, all the wromg results. The creative measures in the post would keep that from happenning and keep me and all the others able to spend money.
  
  Result- the economy would stay afloat and this horrible domino effect in layoffs, less spending. layoffs, something crippling for our economy would not be happenning!

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  3

  prashant_singh

  01/18/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Cutting Back Without Layoffs

  I think if company have to start cost cutting , it need to concentrate on cutting down the fat bonuses and salary to top executive, cutting accross the salary, cutting down on other unnecessary expenses like AC's, electricity, business lunches.
  
  I belive we have to find out 80-20 rule and try to find out the 80% of the cost which is caused by 20% of the things and have to cut on that.
  
  I think the 10% of the cost will come from the top executives bonuses, commission and salary. (Many senior manager, AVP's can be asked to actually work as these people really do not do anything except handling team and people issue which is very strange)

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  richeygw

  01/27/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Cutting Back Without Layoffs

  The cost cutting vs. layoff vote is biased by the way the questions are presented. People are voting on selfisheness vs. sharing. Few people are going to vote themselves as selfish. The outcome is pre-destined. I looked at past questions up for vote and they follow the same pattern. The questions are fashioned to prove the authors' points. I personally think cost cutting is preferable to layoffs but the questions should be presented impartially.

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  mmallows

  02/04/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Cutting Back Without Layoffs

  However we got here, here we are! Let's consider the future with as much courage, curiosity, creativity and openness as possible.
  
  a) Cutbacks might help the company survive. In time we might thrive again i.e. more jobs.
  
  b) Layoffs make it more likely the company might not survive i.e. no jobs.
  
  c) Some yet to be decided middle way (and we're running out of time).
  
  d) your suggestion and the thinking behind it?
  
  Indicate your preferred option

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  manifestyourdestiny

  02/19/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Cutting Back Without Layoffs

  Layoffs should be a last resort. More importantly, layoffs and other payroll-cutting measures should never be done in place of appropriate performance management. I don't mind being asked to make a short-term sacrifice - via wage freezes, enforced furloughs, etc. - as long as I don't feel I'm sacrificing on behalf of coworkers who are dead weight.
  
  The president of my company periodically meets with the senior management team to review the performance ratings of every employee (we have about 250 employees), and expects an action plan for the bottom 5-10% of the staff. That might include finding a better position for them within the company if they're worth keeping, but often it means managing them out the door.
  
  When employees see that slackers aren't tolerated indefinitely, they're much more open to sharing the economic burden in order to keep the company viable. From a management perspective, this is preferable to laying off valuable employees who you will likely need to replace eventually. When the economy turns around and hiring starts to scale back up, it will be difficult to get those same quality employees back. So it's a matter of balancing short-term and long-term goals.

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  MeetTheBigBoss

  02/25/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Cutting Back Without Layoffs

  It's Difficult to DECODE when you are Joining a Job/Position - if you are:
  
  A Part of Excess Inventory (Human):
  
  In Anticipation of Realization of Some New Market Share. IF THAT REALIZATION DOES NOT HAPPEN - YOU and ME ARE EXCESS INVENTORY
  
  A Temp on the Rolls in Disguise of a Permanent Employee - Because for All practical reasons (predictable or not) - The Job is because of a bubble (Temp (2-5 yrs) Demand) in Marketplace - BullWhip Effect -
  
  Or You are a FLOWER IN THE GARDEN OF THE COMPANY - THE BEES (CLIENTS) WOULD NOT TURN TO THE GARDEN UNLESS THEY SEE THE FLOWERS IN THE GARDEN - A FLOWER TO ATTRACT THE CLIENTS - IF THE CLIENTS DO NOT COME FOR LONG - YOU ARE THE WILTED FLOWER - LAID OFF EXCESS INVENTORY - (HUMAN INVENTORY)
  
  I see these as More Common root Causes for Alarmingly High Number of Layoffs.
  
  Corporate Prudence in Choosing the Realistic rate of Growth, albeit slower than the competitors - Largely market. (Research should be focussed here to come up with hghly predictive models).