The Capitalist Collective Farm?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

From a pamphlet handed out to us at a meeting yesterday, heralding something they are calling, "The New *___ Way";

"Over the last few years, our business has grown tremendously as other businesses have suffered from the weak global economy. We are all very fortunate to have remained employed through these tough times. In the interest of continuing and growing this success, we will be rolling out an exciting and innovative new way of doing things. We call it, "The *___ Way"."

Sounds great, Huh?

Read on;

From the section entitled; "What is great about working here?" (And comments made by members of senior management.)

"...financial reward is not what's great about working here, the sense of accomplishment and being part of something bigger than myself is."

"We want coworkers who aren't hessitant to go above and beyond, even when there is no personal gain involved.

"Some people are only interested in working for a paycheck. They clock in, put in a days work, clock out and collect a paycheck. Not here! Here, we expect more from each other. Here, we expect everyone to strive for success and take great personal pride in growing the business, setting new records on a daily basis..............anyone who is only here to make a paycheck, won't be here for long."

"Everyone here is my customer, my goal is not merely selfish, personal reward, my goal is to make sure my customers are all completely satisfied with the product I provide them......."

On the surface, the points concerning work ethic don't bother me at all. The downplay of "financial reward", "....selfish, personal reward...", and demonizing the simple desire to trade a days work for a days pay coupled with the not-quite-so-veiled threat of unemployment does.

You're not supposed to be concerned with financial reward? Your only concern is "...what's good for the company and it's continued growth in the market place."?

I'm supposed to be ashamed of myself for expecting to get paid for my efforts and think only of the advancement of the group?

Welcome to the "New World Order", comrades. It's seems the we've figured out how to mix corporate capitalism with Soviet style collectivist brainwashing.

Perhaps, you might think I'm crazy, or stupid, I dunno. But, I watch what goes on around me.....and I don't envy the people coming behind me at all.

The future labor market seems to be morphing into an auction block for wage slavery every day.


What do you say?


Dave

*Company name omitted to protect the innocent. (Me.)

First they bring in the hatchet man, then they cook up a line of shit like this.

I suspect they're not making any money, or at least not what they expect to. If everything is kewl, why are they suddenly changing things?

Not trying to rain on your parade, but I'd be making arrangements to jump ship. I've seen this happen before.

Best of wishes,

Chas

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Wasillaguy

Any clues as to why the monetary incentives weren't effective?

Money alone isn't actually the best incentive in the workplace. If one buys into psychobabble, it may indeed be among the lowest (providing it is adequate).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%...archy_of_needs

[Big_Bill]

I would guess that the Temporary Workers are the problem, as they usually are not included in bonuses, nor are they paid at the same scale as full time employees.

And if they are often replaced, there will be a loss of productivity during training.

Also, In my experience, second shift supervision is seldom good, as most of these are just waiting for a daytime job, or a transfer to first shift, and upper management is not there to see what is going on. When I had my company I would walk in unannounced and find security asleep, supervisors sleeping in their offices and the occasional fling going on in their office. Of course they were all fired. But replacement with better supervisory personnel was difficult at any reasonable cost, as few want to work the night shift.

It can also be that supervision is not included in the bonus program. Causing a poor attitude toward the company and lower productivity.

And does the night shift receive a night shift differential in salary, a percentage increase for working night shift ? If not this also would cause dissatisfaction among the employees.

Bill

[djv8ga]

Originally Posted by Big_Bill

I would guess that the Temporary Workers are the problem, as they usually are not included in bonuses, nor are they paid at the same scale as full time employees.

And if they are often replaced, there will be a loss of productivity during training.

Also, In my experience, second shift supervision is seldom good, as most of these are just waiting for a daytime job, or a transfer to first shift, and upper management is not there to see what is going on. When I had my company I would walk in unannounced and find security asleep, supervisors sleeping in their offices and the occasional fling going on in their office. Of course they were all fired. But replacement with better supervisory personnel was difficult at any reasonable cost, as few want to work the night shift.

It can also be that supervision is not included in the bonus program. Causing a poor attitude toward the company and lower productivity.

And does the night shift receive a night shift differential in salary, a percentage increase for working night shift ? If not this also would cause dissatisfaction among the employees.

Bill

Very accurate post.

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Money alone isn't actually the best incentive in the workplace. If one buys into psychobabble, it may indeed be among the lowest (providing it is adequate).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%...archy_of_needs

I have seen money change people in the most natural of ways in the workplace.
I can recall more than a few times significantly raising a persons wages and getting a completely differant set of behaviors for the positive.

I have also found that bonuses were always a very ineffective way to raise production.

That's just my personal experiances.

[Oerets]

I've seen similar letters , happens right before cuts of some kind. Normally right after you get a new manager or merge. When it happens seems they wanted to scare the sheep, keep them in line and be grateful to still have a job.
Works that is why it is still done.


Next thing might be a class of some kind with "The Bobs"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Sn9...eature=related




Barney

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by noonereal

Is that $2,300 for the year, month or week?

For the year. But, I also make $26/hour which is the top rate for maintenance. So, I do pretty good. Not complaining about that. (Machine operators top out at $17, but, realistically, most of them are temps at $8.50/hour.)

Look. What I was pointing at was the Orwellian tone of the meeting. And it's similarity to things I've heard from friends/family who work at Home Depot and Walmart, for example. It seems to be a trend.

"If you just want to make money, you have no place here!"

Of course we are. Everybody works to make money. Start holding down HIS pay and telling him "Oh, you just want MONEY, huh?!" and watch what happens............

Dave

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Big_Bill

I would guess that the Temporary Workers are the problem, as they usually are not included in bonuses, nor are they paid at the same scale as full time employees.

And if they are often replaced, there will be a loss of productivity during training.

Also, In my experience, second shift supervision is seldom good, as most of these are just waiting for a daytime job, or a transfer to first shift, and upper management is not there to see what is going on. When I had my company I would walk in unannounced and find security asleep, supervisors sleeping in their offices and the occasional fling going on in their office. Of course they were all fired. But replacement with better supervisory personnel was difficult at any reasonable cost, as few want to work the night shift.

It can also be that supervision is not included in the bonus program. Causing a poor attitude toward the company and lower productivity.

And does the night shift receive a night shift differential in salary, a percentage increase for working night shift ? If not this also would cause dissatisfaction among the employees.

Bill

I believe you're right, Bill. We've evolved to a point where most of the employees are temps. Ostensibly, a temps potential reward is the promise of a "full time" job with higher pay and full benefits. At least that's what it used to be. Now, the workplace is filling up with temps. Some hang on maybe a year, before they realize it isn't happening and move on.

I think, perhaps there are those in upper management who only see the short term cost savings of this arrangement? They seem to have the attitude that anyone idiot can do those jobs, so we'll just use temps to do it all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we both know that that isn't quite true. That even simple jobs done more effectively by a motivated employees make everything run much smoother.

Supervision has a separate bonus program from ours. Not sure exactly how it works. But, I do know none of them have had a bonus in a few years. Still, we have some that are excellent at what they do, and all too many that simply take up space. The man who's supposed to be in charge of production on my shift is the perfect example of this. I have no idea how he keeps his job. The other two supervisors on the shift try to take up his slack, but they have their own jobs to do. I've even been told I need to "........stay on these people." I'm a mechanic. How is it MY JOB to make machine operators do their jobs? If they won't listen to him, they sure as hell aren't paying any attention to me.

There is a shift differential, but it's small. I've never heard anyone complain about it.

Dave

[merrylander]

Sounds like Mushroom Management -

Keep the employees in the dark and feed them horse maure.

[Oerets]

Between temps and interns take your pick, looks like to me a new type of economic slavery is on the horizon. Without a strong labor movement what did people think would happen. The unions not only helped their members over the years, but the fear of organizing kept companies somewhat in check.




Barney