STOP IT! This is not a Great Debate about capitalism versus socialism vs communism. This is about two Dopers that were LIED to and abused by The BOSE CORPORATION against the company’s stated charter. Morgainelf, Shagnasty, and Debaser are all 100% in favor of capitalism. What is not acceptable is abject lying (Bose) or fraudulent business practices (Enron). Please do not hijack this thread any further.
Shagnasty
Corporate Slave with a Daughter on the Way
A Brand New Mortgage in a New Area and
A Ton of Hurt Goin’ On
Tell me about it, I think I got off the sinking ship by the skin of my teeth last year. (I’m just someone else’s slave now )
Unfortunately, they got one of my friends coupla weeks ago. What burns me about it is there are at least two other people in that dept. who were dead weight, and they layed him off. They treated him like a criminal! Came right up to his desk and said “You have 30 min. by law to pack your stuff up and leave. You may not touch your computer.” Stood there and watched him the whole time, and then escorted him out. The guy never did anything wrong, was always on time etc.
What’s worse is there’s another round coming, so every Friday one of my best friends sits their chewing her nails because she’s not buddy-buddy with the boss. Politics carry more weight than money sometimes.
Again, the way into a company is the same on the way out: It’s not what you know it’s who you know.
There IS an actual question in the OP, however. I guess I didn’t really mean for it to be there - I was mostly just ranting. But since it’s there, I’ll re-state:
Is it just Bose, or are other companies as two-faced? Does every company mislead its employees by promising (not in writing, but in spirit and demeanor) that loyalty will be repaid?
It may sound odd to personify a company in this way, but as Devilman Palmer pointed out in his eloquent post,
Oh, and Shagnasty, maybe you could take up writing country song lyrics? That’s a great title…
I can only speak from personal experience. I’ve worked for five companies in my 25 year career. I’ve come to recognize that there are two scales of performance that are important to me: integrity and intelligence. These competencies are typically a reflection of the values of a few people in executive management. And being an cough executive cough myself now, it pains me when this goes south.
To address your questions more directly. I think Corporate America spans the full spectrum of good and bad. For example, of the five companies I’ve worked for, on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is the “good” score…
Company 1, a public utility… integrity=7, intelligence=2
Company 2, a contract programming firm… integrity=8, intelligence=8
Company 2, after we were bought out by a larger company… integrity=3, intelligence=6
Company 3, a bank, technology division… integrity=7, intelligence=7
Company 4, a large technology company… integrity=1, intelligence=4
Company 5, a small software company… integrity=9, intelligence=9
So you can see that even in my limited personal experience, I’ve seen pretty much the full spectrum.
In my view, a low score in either integrity or intelligence can result in behaviors that the average employee would view as “evil”. I don’t believe people are criticizing Capitalism when they accuse a corporation of evil behavior… most appropriately, they’re criticizing the people in that organization who are behaving in a dishonest or stupid manner.
This thread has stirred some bitter memories for me. I got laid off in one of the classic Great American Layoffs, the closure of the Sears Catalog in 1993.
At Sears I survived several major cuts before the final axe fell. A couple years before the end they laid off all the in-house typographers; this was when we switched to a modern Quark-type system and the copywriters started doing their own typography. The old typographers (and they were, mostly, older guys) had desks along a single hallway in a row. On the day their layoff happened, they didn’t know if all of them would be cut, or only some of them. They each received the news by a phone call at their desk, and the phone calls were done one at a time, starting with the first guy in the row, proceeding in order down the row to the last guy in the row. So organized, those managers. Somewhat lacking in tact.
Even now it irks me that people still receive a product titled “Sears Catalog” in the mail; after they shut down the actual Catalog Division they immediately started outsourcing the catalogs. (Admittedly, not on quite the same scale as the real thing.)
My Dad worked in the same industry, for a company called Compugraphic that made typesetting machines for newspapers. Through the late eighties and early nineties he miraculously avoided the axe that seemed to be taking out all of his co-workers. I remember him crying one day when he was forced to lay off a friend that he had worked with for 25 years.
He had a traumatic health issue in 1993, which caused him to retire on disability at age 50. I’m sure he would have been laid off shortly afterward had that not happened. The company was bought out by Agfa, and the typesetting business went the way of the dinosaur.
Well, this episode has given me the kick in the pants I needed. My resume is complete, posted, and has been sent out to numerous area companies.
To answer your question from the OP, Morgainelf, I believe that all corporations operate with the same principles of the company that laid off your two friends. The only difference here is that your company actually made an attempt at convincing employees otherwise; that was reprehensible. We all know the score when we work for corporations; having them lie to us is just insulting. If there is anyone left in Corporate North America at this point (and Canada is no better, trust me) who thinks their corporation is looking out for them, they’re kidding themselves and will find out for themselves some day. Look at the trend in NA for companies to use disposable employees rather than hire employees; this isn’t being done because it’s good for the employees. I’m sorry you got your wake-up call this way; corporate betrayal stings no less than any other betrayal.
So, today the corporation (if you’ve read the thread, you know which one), rolled out the new corporate base pay policy.
We’ve done away with salary grades, and are now in salary “bands”, designed to ensure that people are paid according to market benchmarks.
So, according to my job description and the actual work I do, I’ve been bumped up to a “Sr. Contributor” salary band. This is good.
The kicker: I am paid several thousand dollars less than the minimum salary for the band. And there are no plans to do a salary adjustment. I’ve asked my manager if there will be phased raises to get me into the band, and what percentage of penetration he feels I should be at. There will be no raises until my review (in November), and they will be in the normal range (4% - 6%)
So basically, I’m screwed as long as I stay here. Good way to reward longevity, if you ask me! They must think I’m a :wally
Interesting case of corporate schizophrenia… they’ve changed the salary structure to “ensure people are paid according to corporate benchmarks”, and then they “have no plans to do a salary adjustment” for people who are below the range?
Just when one thinks they’ve seen it all.
By the way, there is typically no difference between “salary grades” and “salary bands” from a compensation perspective. Usually what the company is doing is simplifying their life by reducing the number of different job grades into a fewer number of salary bands. For example, a clerk in Accounting might have been classified in a different job grade than the software librarian in the IT Department. In the new system, they might fall into the same salary band.
At all the companies I’ve worked for, regardless of their general incompetence, they’ve all dealt with this situation by having some sort of a plan to adjust compensation for people who are below the range. Sometimes it’s a immediate bump in salary. Sometimes it’s a more frequent salary review cycle. Sometimes it’s a matrix which recommends higher percentage salary increases for people who are low in the range or below the minimum. The last method seems to be the most common, in my experience.
If I were you, I’d follow up with HR to find out what the plans are… your manager may not be armed with the full facts. Good luck.
Her manager is not armed with much, let me tell you. If brains were bullets then she would be firing a squirt gun at a half trickle. But that’s a topic for another day. I digress.
I have a friend who was recently told his employment with his current employer will end mid-May.
Previous to this notification he had requested a weekend in April off, and it had been approved. Now, however, because of the large number of layoffs, they are expecting employees to put in extra hours and are retroactively denying leave requests.
So he is simultaneously expendable and critical. I have advised him to simply take the weekend off. What can they do, fire him?
This is why I don’t feel at all bad about doing SDMB or whatever on company time, so long as I get my actual work done. I don’t share DNA with any employer, and I am well aware that no company gives half a damn about me. I have come to expect immoral, inhuman actions from companies that can’t see anything other than the bottom line.
I don’t blame them - they’re there to make money. Well, so am I. So I come in, do work, make my money, and go home. I don’t think about this place after 4:00 pm. I have no qualms about taking a day off just to stay home and play computer games. At no point did I decide that the needs of some corporation were more important than myself as a human being. They may feel otherwise, but I don’t. Screw em.
That’s how I feel about Krapmart anymore. I stay past my scheduled time because my relief didn’t come in, and solicit donations for the March of Dimes for them, I get breaks skipped, work through migraines, and when I call in sick because I’ve got cramps, they give me grief about it.
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