Outsourced Odyssey

U.S. Blue-Chip Businesses Shift Hiring Abroad

2011-04-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Data from the U.S. Commerce Department reveal U.S. multinational companies increasingly are staffing their workforce from overseas. During the 2000s these businesses cut their U.S. Workforce by 2.9 million; hiring overseas increased by 2.4 million, as revealed this week in the Wall Street Journal.

The concern among some economists: the U.S.is not as competitive as overseas for staffing global companies. These large, premier companies--seen as "canaries in the coal mine" by economists due to their global footprints-- are an early warning that future quality employment here is at risk.

Clyde Prestowitz, a former trade negotiator and now a critic of US trade policy, listed what he felt is behind these trends:

"All the incentives in the global economy:

an overvalued US dollar
lower corporate taxes abroad
very aggressive investment incentives abroad
government pressure abroad versus not at home
... has been having, and will continue to have, a negative impact on US employment and wages."

A new job - and lessons learned

2007-07-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

My wife has landed a new job - YAY! Her unemployment had just recently expired, so this was great timing.

While it's fresh in our minds, here are a few lessons learned from her job search.

Be positive
A positive mental attitude will make all the difference. Don't reflect too much on the past, on the last job. What counts is the present. This could be an opportunity in disguise. Focus on the future - your next job - and make this a change for the better.

It's a marathon, not a sprint
You may be lucky and find something new quickly. But most likely, your job search will take a while. Most likely it will be months - not weeks - of effort to land your next job. Don't worry: it takes most people this long, not just you.

A job search requires new skills
You need to know where to look for job postings, the ins and outs of unemployment, how to write a resume, how to write a cover letter, interviewing techniques, etc. There are many resources online to help you. You also may have nonprofit job search organizations in your local area that give free classes on these topics. It's time well spent.

If feasible, upgrade you
This might be the time to take a few classes and upgrade your job skills. This need not be a long, costly endeavor. Selected computer classes at your local adult education facility can help qualify you for a better job.

Know thyself
What type of job do you want? Why? And what makes you qualified to get that job? Start your job search looking inward - not outward.

Online job postings are a great resource
Newspaper job listings guarantee lots of competition and focus on jobs where demand exceeds supply (think: nurses, tech hotshots). Small businesses are increasingly using resources like Craig's List, Monster and other job sites - they find them often cheaper, faster and easier than newspapers. For the job hunter, using searches to target specific jobs and locations is a godsend.

Tailor your resume and cover letter for each job
The employer often mentions specific job skills needed. If you have these skills, make sure they can't be missed by the person screening your resume. A little extra time can mean the difference between the interview pile and the reject pile.

Interviews are an acquired skill
Your early interviews may not go as well as you hoped. Don't worry: you'll get better as you go along. Better yet - have a few practice interviews with a friend before the real thing. After a few times you'll be a veteran, and possibly better at it that the person doing the interview!

Be yourself during the interview
Disregard advice that you must "perform" during the interview - this will only make you tense and unnatural. Of course be positive and professional. But be yourself. If they don't like the real you, why would you want to work there?

Put yourself in the employer's shoes
Have someone you trust look at your resume as a prospective employer would. Are there questions, or red flags you should be ready for? Gaps in employment, frequent job changes, etc. may be for good reasons. Make sure these questions aren't a surprise.

On the trail of a job opening

2007-05-25T23:17:00.000-07:00

It seemed today I had found an instance of a rare and endangered species: a technical opening in our office for a California associate.

I discovered it in a chat with a colleague. He was leaving the company, and wonder of wonders, it seemed his position was not going away. He would actually be replaced. This meant (gasp) a job opening.

It was a testing engineer position, not the most fascinating thing in the world. But it had some positives. The work closely involved the major database I have long worked with until last year. There was a local team leader, so management was on-site, and I knew a couple of other people on the team. Finally, the work would allow me to gain much deeper knowledge of our data structures for marketing. All in all, it seemed preferable to the position I've been slotted into.

Before getting too excited, I went over to learn more about it from the team leader. And a good thing I did. Unfortunately, it seems my colleague did not quite have it right.

The team currently is "in a state of flux" (like who isn't these days). The position would be on hold while things sort themselves out. It was unlikely the opening would be filled by an associate.

Instead, the position will be outsourced. In fact, outsourcing is the eventual direction for the whole testing function.

What's the title of that Beatles song again? Oh yeah.

I Should Have Known Better.

Layoff volunteers - the end of a humane option

2007-05-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

Talking to an old colleague today, the subject naturally turned to recent layoffs in her unit. She's 62, and would welcome a severance package. However, during recent reductions, they laid off another man, a few years younger, highly capable, but not ready by any means for retirement. Yet both would have cost the same amount of severance dollars.

In other words, our company could have chosen a more humane layoff decision at no additional cost. She was ready and willing. She would have gladly gone. All they needed to do was ask for layoff volunteers. Why would they not do that?

My friend had the answer. Last year they were briefed by management and asked that very question. The reason? The Bank was sued. And lost. No more layoff volunteers.

Apparently the issue concerned "preference" and the bank could not prove objectivity. Reading between the lines, someone sued - and won - for not getting laid off. Is this a great country or what?

As I have written earlier, it's hard to see how this is a great victory for The Workers. People willing and able to be laid off are not. Others - for whom a layoff will be a great hardship - get sacked.

One lawyer and their client hit the Legal Lottery. But the business was not the only one on the losing end.

Forcible "integration"

2007-05-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

I have officially been "integrated" into the larger organization that swallowed up our "smaller" 1000 person division earlier this year. Although I've been at this place 29 years, this is something new for me. And that's saying something.

Don't get me wrong, reorganizations around here come fast and furious. Nothing new there. I've been through reorganizations where my team gets a new manager, the team is moved to some other organization, we get a new higher-level manager, etc. Any of these I've gone through numerous times (I'm on my sixth manager now in the last 12 months).

This time was different. The team I was on was broken apart by function, and each person sent to a different place in this new monster organization. A team of familiar faces is quite helpful in times of change - but that security blanket is not there this time. My old team no longer exists.

Instead, like the Army, I have been told to report to G, my new manager. My entire team is on the East Coast; I've never heard of them, and they've never heard of me. None of the team members has been an employee more than five years; my manager has been here eight months. Oh, and I'm the oldest on the team by at least 15 years.

Last year when I joined this team, I had to interview for the job - they chose me for the position. Although I was new, my new manager had heard good things about me, and I had a local West Coast teammate that I knew.

But in this situation, I was literally dumped on this team, apparently whether they liked it or not. No one had a choice, there was nothing voluntary about it. Hopefully it will all work out, assuming this is not simply a short way station before the vaunted "economies" of this integration are realized.

However, no matter which way I look at it, it's rather unsettling.

Our Outsourcing Continues

2007-05-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

Three more senior-level programmers have been laid off from our West Coast offices. With this one move our organization let walk out the door 90+ years of specialized, highly valuable experience. Left behind in their place: two young, freshfaced Indians - and a number of their offshore compatriots - filled with several weeks of "knowledge transfer".

Our department a few years ago numbered 83. We ran the technical side of the organization's database marketing operation with great success. But now only 23 workers remain - a reduction of more than 70%.

Our workplace - so tightly packed at the peak that visitors needed to use cubicles of those out sick or on vacation - is now rather sparsely populated. Many aisles are deserted save for the window cubicle. Of the 36 available cubicles near me, all but two sit empty. I half expect to look up one day soon and see a tumbleweed blowing past.

Meanwhile the survivors soldier on. Why don't we just leave? Well, of course the younger and most marketable of us have moved on to greener pastures. Many of the remaining are over 50 and would prefer to put off the day when they put our open, diversity-loving society to the All Ages Are Equal test.

Unfortunately, that day has been coming all too soon for many of us lately.

Famous economist: 40 million jobs at risk

2007-03-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

Princeton economist and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder says the current one million jobs lost from offshoring is the "tip of the iceberg". In a page 1 Wall Street Journal article this week, Blinder says as many as 40 million American jobs could be shipped overseas in the next decade or two.

"A New Industrial Revolution" is the scale of change this nation faces, analogous to when workers left farms en masse and migrated to cities. This change set off massive shifts in "how and where people lived, how they educated their children, the organization of businesses, the form and practices of governments."

The changes we face in the coming generation are of this scale. We must recognize the dimensions of the problem and begin to prepare ourselves for it.

He says the most important divide is not, as commonly argued, between jobs that require a lot of education and those that don't. It's not simply that skilled jobs stay in the US and lesser-skilled jobs go to India or China. The important distinction is between services that must be done in the U.S. and those that can -- or will someday -- be delivered electronically with little degradation in quality. The more personal work of divorce lawyers isn't likely to go overseas, for instance, while some of the work of tax lawyers could be. Civil engineers, who have to be on site, could be in great demand in the U.S.; computer engineers might not be.

Our educational system must adapt. A college degree will not offer a worker protection if they have worked hard only to master a skill that is easily outsourced offshore.

Bottom line: jobs with person-to-person contact will survive; many others will not. The janitor's job is safe. But all you computer programmers...oh, well.

Still standing

2007-03-01T15:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a long week. Just waiting for the East Coast head honcho to arrive, probably to lay people off. After all, she had said all "affected Associates" would be notified by end of February, and she was to be here the 27th and 28th. And with our unit being potentially redundant after the last internal organization, things weren't looking good.

But she has come and gone and I am still standing. I was sick yesterday and working from home, and spent the whole day checking voicemail every half hour. With each call I waited anxiously to see if a "summons" was on my voicemail; fortunately I always heard "no new messages" awaited me.

They have taken a new quiet policy and are not announcing layoffs, but I know something was supposed to happen yesterday. Of course word always gets around when people are let go, so our minds will not be eased just because a formal announcement is withheld.

Or maybe it's just not a big deal any longer. What a great topic for our internal corporate web site: "Click here for the latest layoff news!" "Check back often to see if your name is on the list."

Sometime ahead they will be analyzing in detail redundant positions after this reorganization is complete. That may be a hard exercise to survive. But for now I'm still here.

But each layoff round leaves one battered and bruised. How much can someone take without becoming perennially demotivated?

Think I'll skip the welcome mat

2007-02-20T20:38:00.000-08:00

I received an ominous e-mail this morning.

My manager’s boss is coming to town, for an in-person “all hands” meeting. We were told to reserve Tuesday, February 27th for a short meeting. Our manager said we shouldn’t worry, it’s likely just a “meet and greet” session.

Yeah, right. Managing 200+ employees, she’s going to drop everything, fly across the country from the East Coast, to have a “short meeting” with her 12 West Coast associates.

There can be only one reason for this trip: she will be laying off people. Per company protocol the news has to be delivered in person.

This is the same script from last year. The unexplained higher level East Coast manager visit. The advance note to make sure everyone is “available”. The promised “all hands” meeting as a cover.

The original performance was bad enough – was a sequel really necessary?

Rampant rumors

2007-02-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

A former colleague from Florida called a couple days ago with the grim news that he was amongst those laid off February 1st. We are in the same department, but he's on a different team. He had been expecting it, since he was the right hand communications man for the now-retired executive. Like a change of parties in Washington, formerly secure jobs quickly become insecure when the top boss goes.

The cutting is not done, and even heavier layoffs can be expected next month - according to him. Next month they will be letting go now-redundant workers as our organization is swallowed into a much larger one. That was not what I wanted to hear.

I had been hoping an optimistic rumor was true: our two organizations would operate independently for the remainder of the year. As we had been told by our leader only last week, "most of the layoffs" have already occurred. And if things would operate independently for a while, maybe I would be safe for the rest of the year.

Without the benefit of my rose-colored glasses, the heavier layoff rumor seems more probable.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, layoffs

Anatomy of a Layoff

2007-01-31T22:48:00.001-08:00

I should have seen the signs.

Kiddingly, my colleague yesterday had told our East Coast manager not to drop in on us without warning. Californians know that can mean only one thing: layoffs. Our boss had responded, "Don't worry. A lot of people are getting on planes, but I'm not one of them."

This morning it hit home. M, a close friend of mine at work, came by my desk early today. She was holding the infamous severance "package". Her East Coast boss's boss had given her the word only that morning.

Although she had been hoping to get a few more years in, her husband has a good job and her only son is now in college, so she thinks she'll be okay. Still, it's a shock. And she only gets two more weeks. Her last day is February 15th.

She also said: word is the local Hilton is swarming with East Coast managers here to do layoffs. And shortly after we received word that five people in our eastern colleagues department had also been laid off. So it was not an isolated incident - layoffs were happening in technology across the country.

At one o'clock came the obligatory all hands meeting to discuss what everyone already knew: layoffs had occurred. Business priorities had changed, market conditions were bad, and if you were associated with an initiative that had its funding pulled...oh well.

As to the question on everyone's mind: no, they are not done. Additional positions will be cut with the goal of everyone notified by March 31.

I feel like a soldier on the front. Today I survived. Not everyone made it, but I did. It's a relief.

Unfortunately, the war is far from over. And a new battle looms.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Corporate thoughtfulness

2007-01-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

Our "retiring" leader held a meeting this week to introduce the head of the organization we will be merged into. Our new leader had nothing definite to say at this time about what will happen, begging off that it was premature, and he wanted to approach the integration "thoughtfully".

Thoughtfully. Hmmm...that surely would require a few months, right?

Well, no. Apparently, 45 days will do the job. It's something "we have to do relatively quickly. It's a new year, and we have a plan to execute against."

Let's see. Forty-five days from now would be March 1st. Conveniently, anyone terminated on March 1st and given 30 days notice would be off the books for the start of second-quarter.

He obviously already has a target head count number. The sooner staff cuts are made, the better 2007 expense numbers will look (which of course determine bonuses, not that that's an issue in matters such as these).

During the next six weeks severance packages will be prepared for the March 1st mass termination. That's the real analysis that will be taking place.

Yes, come March 1st The Plan will be thoughtfully executed. Not to mention many of us "associates".

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

New year, old worries

2007-01-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, with less than 30 minutes notice, a quick meeting was called for an "org update". (Note to managers: this is a great way to guarantee full attendance at your meeting.) Sure enough, we received news of potential impact to everyone in the room: the Chief Information Officer in charge of our parent division was suddenly retiring.

Even worse: the CIO was not being replaced. Instead, our 1000 person division will be "integrated" into another technology division, and the official announcement from senior management cheerfully described the cost savings ahead.

Our group is part of a support organization serving the now-former CIO and the division. The larger division we are being consumed by already has its own support structure. Do they need duplicate support groups? Of course, anything can happen, and it may be premature to be overly worried. However, I can do the math, and many of us will probably be cost savings casualties.

This could be another interesting year.

Technorati Tags: layoffs

A New Year!!??

2007-01-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

I had to write my first "07" date yesterday, and as always, it's a very peculiar feeling. After having written (or, more likely, typed) hundreds of "06's", it's not easy to move on. Alas, these new years just happen - whether I like it or not!

A New Year always contains a mix of feelings and emotions for me. It's a fresh start in many ways, a honeymoon period sparked with hope and optimism: this will be the year some difficult obstacle is finally overcome.

At work, everyone is back and the long winding down to the holidays is replaced with a new energy. It can feel good to get back to normal again.

But January can also be a trying time emotionally. I remember growing up in Chicago, with all the early winter cold and snow so exciting, a prelude to the magic of Christmas. But then Christmas was here, and gone, and we were left with...January. Many weeks of cold and ice to go, with shoveling snow a poor substitute for Holiday glitter.

The weather in northern California does not match the never-ending summer image of our Southern California brethren - we do experience a change of seasons. But it's a "kinder, gentler" winter here with no snow and temperatures in the 40s/50s. Still, January is the gloomiest time of year even here, with lots of damp, foggy, rainy days.

So I guess that makes me...what? Gloomily positive? Hopeful in a dreary way?

Who knows. But if past experience is any judge, there is one difficult obstacle that will soon be overcome triumphantly.

I will be a master of the "07" dates in no time.

Will Smith (2): One Step at a Time

2006-12-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

More insights from the December Reader's Digest interview with Will Smith.

Smith shared some valuable lessons he learned from his father:

Smith: My father was in the military, so everything was really regimented.

RD: Was he a taskmaster?
Smith: Oh, yeah, he was very serious about things being a certain way. When my father got out of the Air Force, he started his own refrigeration business. I might have been 12 and my brother 9 when one day he decided he wanted a new front wall at his shop. He tore the old one down -- it was probably 16 feet high and 40 feet long. And he told us that this was going to be our gig over the summer. We were standing there thinking, There will never, ever, be a wall here again. We went brick by brick for the entire summer and into winter and then back into spring. One day there was a wall there again. I know my dad had been planning this for a long time. He said, "Now, don't you all ever tell me there's something you can't do." And he walked into the shop.

The thing I connect to is: I do not have to build a perfect wall today. I just have to lay a perfect brick. Just lay one brick, dude.

How often have I felt overwhelmed by the enormity of a huge project, or a period of time (like the holidays) when so much is going on. At these times, I need to remember Smith's example:

Slow down. Take a deep breath. Take it one step at a time.

(See an earlier post on tips for tackling tough projects.)

Will Smith's Secrets of Success

2006-12-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

I've always enjoyed Will Smith's movies - his characters are always worth the price of admission.
The December Reader's Digest has an interview with Will Smith that gave me some insights into his phenomenal success.

It's simple. Just blend a positive-thinking-to-the-max Dale Carnegie-type with a maniacal work ethic. Smith's take on himself: "I consider myself to be of basically average talent, right? What I have that other people do not have is a sick, obsessive, raw animal drive."

His philosophy is: "I can do it." Anything. Here's an example, in this exchange from the interview:

RD: So, you don't see any reason to go back to a formal education yourself?
Smith: I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class.

RD: They put physics in a book, but I know I could never be a physicist.
Smith: The first step is you have to say that you can.

I'd have to agree. Some of the most important skills I've learned and used in my career have been self-taught. I taught myself to type one summer in high school. I taught myself programming from a reference manual during my first college job. Most of my Web development skills have been from books and references versus formal training.

Given the right mix of books, motivation, determination and discipline - you can learn anything.

Of course, becoming another Will Smith is a different story...

Technorati Tags: Will Smith, education

Out of a job

2006-12-07T21:44:00.000-08:00

My wife officially got the word today that her job with the accounting firm has come to an end: tomorrow will be her last day.

We've known this probably was coming for the last few weeks. She has still been doing some work for them, but it has been getting more irregular and scaled-down lately. As well, it's been a difficult place to work and keep in good spirits. She never was given regular duties and authority; instead, all she ever got was piecemeal work that would last a day or two. It was like being a permanent temporary worker.

This way she can file for unemployment and have some money coming in while she looks for something new. She's also been polishing her computer skills. She passed a proficiency test for both Microsoft Word and Excel for a city job she's applied for.

Being out of work is never fun, but even with that there's a bright side.

For the first time in years, she can spend Christmas vacation at home with the boys!

Technorati Tags: layoffs

Outsourcing ingenuity

2006-11-28T22:21:00.000-08:00

Another update from my old database area. Although many people had been affected by the outsourcing we went through earlier, one area was inviolate: the Database Administrators or DBAs. These technical specialists are the experts on the inner workings of the database. To do this, they are entrusted with "God IDs" that have security rights to do anything, including deleting entire databases. Because of information security policy, these positions have to be held by employees and can't be outsourced.

At least I thought so until today. I was chatting with a friend in the hall, and she was complaining about her "pseudo DBA" - someone that performed DBA-like functions for her, but wasn't a "real DBA".

In fact, her pseudo DBA was an Indian contractor. The powers that be have figured out that you can't outsource real DBAs, but all jobs don't require DBA high security authority. Therefore many DBA tasks can be outsourced, reducing the number of DBAs needed. Ingenious!

One minor nitpicking point: the pseudo DBAs are somewhat less than proficient in DBA expertise. In fact, my friend had to spoon feed them the coding instructions for setting up her tables. And she had to point out to them that they had included redundant data items that weren't needed (database design is a core DBA expertise).

But this must be a good deal. Expenses are down - numbers don't lie.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, layoffs

Education in head banging

2006-11-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have developed a job-related web site on the side to use as an R&D exercise. I'm trying to see what works and what doesn't in creating an income-producing web site.

So far, I'm getting a great education in the "what doesn't work" part. Decent Web traffic from these ultra-competitive search terms - jobs, resume, careers, etc. - is not going to happen. After several months of effort, and links from over 100 other sites, I'm still not on the radar screen in Google or Yahoo for the bread-and-butter searches.

Instead of continuing to bang my head against the wall, I'm shifting gears. Within the job search category, perhaps there are lesser-known niches where my site could be found. After all, my site is certainly out there in Google: if I search on certain terms on my homepage my site comes up as the #1 result.

My hope is a collection of tiny niches might add up to something worthwhile. Learning to identify, assess and exploit search terms that the big boys are ignoring seems the only way to go.

Are "Micro Niches" worthwhile? That's the $64 question, of course.

I will do my best to find out.

Technorati Tags: Web marketing, niche, seo

Wife's job OK? Think again

2006-11-08T21:24:00.000-08:00

Another twist in my wife's working situation.

When we last left her, she had found a relatively calm way station working in a small accounting firm, after narrowly escaping the workaholic Iranian dentist who had taken over the bankrupt practice of her former employer. (got that?)

It looked like her working perils were behind her for a while. She rapidly got up to speed with long-forgotten accounting terminology and principles, studying on her own time. The hours were flexible, the location convenient, and the people seemed nice - enough was good that she could overlook the Super Micro-Manager tendencies of her supervisor. They mapped out for her an education plan to train her in most aspects of the business.

However, as time has gone on, for whatever reason she has not been given a set of ongoing responsibilities. Instead, her boss only spoons out tasks that are one to two days long. If she runs into problems, the boss solves them "because it's faster", instead of providing a little training so my wife can handle it the next time. It's a very frustrating way to work for someone that's used to taking the ball and running with it.

Additionally, the working hours are sporadic: no more than 20 hours a week. For example, one week she was told not to come in because they needed her desk for a visiting CPA.

She had a talk with the head of the business Monday. He recognizes her capabilities, and also is frustrated that they are not able to utilize her better. However, it's a very small two-person practice, and most of the work requires an accounting degree-type of background. Without extensive accounting schooling, she can't take on the higher level of work. And what's left is not all that interesting.

That's a long way of saying she needs to look for another job - yet again. But probably better to cut her losses early than be unhappy for a long time. And although the hours are somewhat limited, she still has a job for now while she looks.

This time perhaps she'll find something that has a little less peril...and a little more reward.

Technorati Tags: small business, job search

More from the former team

2006-11-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

Another update regarding my former team.

My former boss, P., had been given her walking papers last spring. In spite of a big push, she was not able to find another position, and is no longer at the company.

Her replacement, D., had been the team leader, and so could get up to speed rapidly. She knew all the issues and played a major role during the transition of the service center to India resources. However, she could see many problems, which she escalated to her management, hoping for resolution and a more streamlined operation.

Her reward? She was told she was being "too emotional" - no additional resources or needed changes would be forthcoming.

And now she also has been relieved of her duties and must find another position. The transition for outsourcing continues to be rocky; she was a convenient "fall guy".

Another co-worker recently returned from maternity leave, the only way she had avoided getting laid off earlier. All through the summer she tried to get an answer to the big question: would she have a job when she returned? No answers from management, despite repeated inquiries. Finally, she assumed she had a job, paid a nonrefundable one month's deposit for the corporate day care, and returned.

And the first day back she's laid off, like all the others. Only now she has to forfeit the month's daycare expense as well. Cute.

Meanwhile, what about the managers that instituted all this outsourcing? They are doing just fine, thank you. In fact, they will probably get nice bonuses for the good work.

That's life in Corporate America.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Wall Street Journal: voter unease a danger signal

2006-10-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

For two decades now, Corporate America has been engaging in an increasingly virulent practice of layoffs; initially for valid competitive reasons, outsourcing is the latest manifestation of business practices that put little or no value on the company's human capital. Amidst the worst of these practices there has been little in the way of public censure. Business has felt no check from society, no negative impact at all from its short-term, bottom-line-at-all-costs orientation.

But as Wall Street Journal columnist Alan Murray pointed out this Wednesday, something seems amiss. In the midst of a strong economy, historically low unemployment, and inflation under 3 percent majority of voters disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy.

...the economic backdrop for election 2006 should raise a warning flag about the future. Large numbers of Americans seem to have lost their belief in John F. Kennedy's famous aphorism that a rising tide lifts all boats. "They know the economy is white hot," says political analyst Charlie Cook, "but they also know they aren't in it....There's a feeling that some people are getting theirs, but we aren't getting ours."

Corporate America may be on the verge of discovering that their actions do indeed have consequences.

The danger for business is that the broad social support for pro-business and pro-market policies that has characterized American politics for a quarter century or more could be breaking down.

...A Democratic wise man told me recently that if he were asked what economic platform would offer a Democratic presidential contender the best chances of success in 2008, he would have to say it's an antitrade, antiglobalization, anti-immigration platform. For now, none of the best-known possible Democratic candidates -- Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore or, the latest fad, Barack Obama -- are taking that tack. But the problem here isn't Democratic leaders. It's Democratic followers. If the reservoir of dissatisfaction grows strong enough, it's only a matter of time before some candidate figures out how to tap in.

The election in 2008 could be the one where economic issues come back, and with an antibusiness vengeance.

Yes, layoffs and outsourcing may have temporarily looked good on the balance sheet. But how do those gains compare to the cost of destroying the pro-business environment that has existed in this country for a generation.

Unbridled layoffs, quite differently from being the bottom-line savior they are cracked up to be, might end up accomplishing something wholly different.

They may kill the golden goose.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Some things ain't what they used to be

2006-10-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

I was stopped by a friend outside my office the other day. I hadn't seen him in a few months (not uncommon in our 2000+ person complex). What is going on with the Web applications I used to support? he wanted to know. He was complaining of constant communications saying the applications were down again. "We never used to have these problems when you supported them."

Yes, it certainly saddens me to hear these things...ha. The latest problem occurred Monday, as the applications were down for several hours that morning. The crack India outsourcing team neglected to notice it was time to change the password on the master ID used for all the Web functions. Monday morning, when everyone tried to look up something on the Web, all they received was in error message saying "Password Has Expired". Oops.

I'm not naive enough to think anyone will be taken to task for all this. But there's a simple lesson to be learned here, if anyone would bother to look for it:

You get what you pay for.

Technorati Tags: outsource, layoffs

Not another one?!

2006-10-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

A favorite management-speak saying these days: "Change is a constant. Embrace it." Well, more change is coming my way. Yay.

My manager, it was announced this week, has landed a plum position; he'll be moving on November 15th. Pardon me if I refrain from too hardy a congratulations.

A change of manager is one of the most disruptive things, as many workers can attest. It's especially annoying in larger companies because odds are the new manager has no clue as to who you are or what you can do. Whatever you have accomplished in the past is history; you are back to square one now.

This will be my fifth manager this year. Even for our company (motto: Reorgs 'R Us) this is pretty dismal. And they wonder why associate satisfaction scores are not the best.

To top it off, these days no manager or a weak manager makes you more vulnerable to layoffs. I barely survived that scenario a few months back, and any chance of a repeat decidedly lacks appeal.

No replacement has yet been picked yet, the current manager is a short-timer, and none of us have a clue what's going on.

Change. You gotta love it.

Technorati Tags: workplace, new manager, layoffs

Preaching to the missing

2006-10-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

I'm a modest, unassuming kind of guy. What can I say, I'm from the Midwest. It goes without saying this is not the best recipe for success in today's corporate world.

Today, though, I was to have a chance to shine. The department manager's all hands meeting this week was going to do a "deep dive" into a couple of recent project successes. One of these projects was mine.

So I put together a beautiful PowerPoint presentation (cloned from someone else's beautiful PowerPoint deck, of course - does anyone know how to create a PowerPoint document from scratch?). I practiced and was ready for today.

One problem. The department manager would not be there: she's at a Leadership Retreat all week. Her replacement: another manager, this one a short timer who will be gone in a couple weeks. Oh, and it turns out my manager couldn't be there - important three-hour meeting.

Ultimately, about 12 of the 25 people showed. One of my other teammates didn't come, and the other one had to step out to take a call and missed the last one-third of the presentation.

Perhaps the Laws of the Universe would come undone if I were to succeed at some semblance of self-promotion. Fortunately for us all, that day was not today.

But everyone, even those that didn't attend, could agree on one thing.

It was a beautiful PowerPoint.

Technorati Tags: workplace, PowerPoint, presentation