Recent economic conditions in the United States have produced a problem that is hardly widespread in times of prosperity; namely, personnel layoffs of indefinite duration.
With hourly How Corporations Fail their Customers paid workers, particularly those who belong to a union, some predetermined plan is put into effect at the time of layoff. In most instances seniority prevails. Does the same hold true for “exempt” salaried employees? In far too many cases there are no set rules. Specific layoffs are influenced by a variety of criteria: skills involve departments, divisions, plants, age, product lines, personalities, and, unfortunately, by whims of the manager. It would be interesting to know the number of senior employees laid off and younger employees retained during periods of payroll reduction merely because, in the opinion of the manager, the senior employee either was “not functioning properly” or was “not properly motivated”. Why was the employee not doing a good job? Caditz laws (1) basically refer to slack: i,e. the lack of cost control when business is good and the concomitant accrual of “fat” in the organization when things are going well. Wouldn’t the same principle apply to supervision? When business is prospering and plenty of work is scheduled ahead, there is a tendency for managers to neglect certain facets of their job, to go along with the rest of the group in primarily seeking to produce or to sell more. Once the work slacken however, it may be obvious that conditions in some areas are out of hand. The reasons for this vary.
In today’s business world, a company needs to make available the “tools” to do a good job proper equipment, good raw materials, adequate facilities, sufficient personal, and a pleasant environment in which to work. Given such “tools” ineffective employees can only be the result of one of three situations: one in which they won’t perform properly: or one in which top management is inadequate. How to correct the condition, of course, varies with the cause.
The Employee Who Can’t
Too frequently the Peter Principle (2) applies. Employees find themselves promoted to jobs beyond their capabilities. Competent in a different phase of the work, they have been promoted to a job similar in context, but requiring the use of skills which they do not possess. They become ineffective. Similarly, previously satisfactory employees may find themselves on a job they cannot now perform, because the work in the department has changed.