Klarinet Archive - Posting 000183.txt from 2004/11

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] RE: elections
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 23:20:47 -0500

At 10:45 AM 11/4/2004 -0800, Dan Leeson wrote:
>I add to Walter's remarks that I, too, was in the corporate
>business world, in my case for 30 years, and my perspective is
>slightly different.
>
>As long as the business is coming in strong and thing are not
>only good but look good for the future, the corporate world is
>anxious to provide benefits for its employees. And these benefits
>range all over the financial and social spectrum. You ought to
>see things like the Yahoo, eBay, and Google campuses. But in that
>world, things are good and look good for the forseeable future.
>
>But when things get difficult and it is not possible to predict a
>supremely rosy picture for five or more years out, the tendency
>is to draw back on benefits, reducing them as much as possible
>because they are such a big chunk of the corporate expenses.
>Sometimes they make changes so bold that the employees sue them,
>and in several recent cases, won the suits.
>
>I don't think that management behaves like the traditional (and
>very much imaginary) business monsters because that is their
>nature. They behave in whatever way they have to in order to
>preserve the bottom line because their first objective is not the
>workforce but the stockholders.

Or, from another point of view, when times are good and unemployment low,
businesses have to offer more in order to attract and retain good
employees. In harder times, workers are more plentiful and they do not
have to offer the same incentives. It is not that they enjoy laying off
people or cutting their benefits; they just do not see providing employment
and benefits for the local community as their PRIMARY objective. Small
local businesses tend to be a bit better in this regard, since an
economically healthy community benefits THEM. On the other hand, large,
impersonal corporations indeed DO have the stockholders' interest as their
primary concern.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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