So Citibank have announced they’re getting rid of [and that’s the right choice of words] over 50,000 employees.
FIFTY FUCKING THOUSAND!
This is on top of the alleged 22,000 they discarded earlier in the year when the financial crisis … something they played an integral part in causing … started to take effect.
Apparently the reason given for this mass clearout is ‘to increase the Citibank shareprice’.
[Puts a new twist on that Citibank ad I slagged off a while back doesn’t it?]
Now whilst it would be easy to feel no sorrow for these people, the reality is that I am sure the majority of them are just everyday workers who never really prospered from the financial shenanigans their bosses were cooking up 50 floors above their cubicle … however there’s another thing that bothers me … what did 50,000 people do that means they can be kicked out and yet the company still functions as normally?
Maybe they were hired to basically ‘launder’ the ill gotten gains of the bank … maybe they were employed to process all the mortgages the bank shouldn’t of agreed to … but I reckon there’s a great opportunity for a competitor to run a campaign that says …
“When 72,000 staff disappear in a year, the level of service will disappear too”
… of course I’d rather say …
“When a bank sheds 72,000 jobs in a year, are they being prudent or desperate?”
Here’s the thing …
I don’t see why getting rid of 72,000 people would be good for your shareprice.
OK, I can appreciate maybe the shorter-term savings … but after you’ve paid them out, it’s not going to be that positive. And besides, I can’t believe Citibank employed that many people to basically twiddle their thumbs. Something is going to suffer either because people aren’t there anymore to do particular jobs or other people are working so hard, mistakes happen through tiredness or lack of attention to detail.
I’ll show my age here, but I remember a time when making people redundant was the absolutely last resort. The last.
Now it seems to be the first plan of action.
How can a company expect loyalty when its employees know that when the slightest bump happens, they’re the first out?
But it’s not all companies fault.
I know quite a few people [and I’m talking about midlevel folk and above here, not the guys lower down who often are the ones who are really doing all the work!] who expect to get ever increasing pay rises even if their company is under major financial pressure.
OK, so if the company is asking its employees to suffer while the guys at the top are still living it large, I can understand – but there’s a few guys I know who think it is a right, regardless of their efforts in the year, to automatically qualify for ever increasing annual income.
Of course the whole concept of a ‘fair wage for a fair day of work’ is impossible because what one person thinks is ‘fair’, another thinks it’s derisory [Ashley Cole, take note] however we’re now in a situation where many employees/unions [and remember, I am very pro-Union] go all out to screw the company for every penny they can get while many companies go all out to wring every ounce of employee capability without any regard for their long-term well being.
Yes I’m being generalistic and I know not everyone is like this … hell, probably it’s a minority, but when you work in a blood sucking industry like mine, it’s easy to get your perspectives wrong … but to me it’s one of the major contributing factors to the demise of society and community.
Which came first – the lack of company loyalty or the lack of employee consideration?
Who knows – and frankly, who cares – but as I’ve said a few times, I hope this financial meltdown helps give people/organisations some perspective/transparancy because otherwise all the suffering that is happening and still to happen, will be in total vain.
As a sacked car worker said on a Michael Moore movie …
“How are people going to afford to buy expensive American made products if they’ve all been sacked and have a few dollars to live on?”
I guess everyone at Ford, GM and Chrysler are about to find that out …
[As an aside, the amount of people finding themselves homeless as a byproduct of this travesty is rising at unbelievable levels, so don’t ignore them – help – because they need to feel valid, valuable and human if they’re going to find the courage and strength to get out of it again. Remember, they’re Human_2]