The Right Spin

That's life. There are very few companies who care about employees anymore. Caring about employees is not going to raise the stock price or get executives their bonuses.

I go through the same beat down every day. Every year management raises our targets, shortens out deadlines and lays off engineers so that those targets can be met. It's not about the employee, its not about the customer, its not about the product. Its only about the money.

It really is.

Put it to you this way, we just had our third round of layoffs in three weeks. The company lays us off when we are doing bad. The company now lays us off when we are doing well. We have more work than double the manpower could handle.

What are we supposed to do.... it sucks. I think in the US today, people are destined to hate their jobs. If you don't hate your job you are either independently wealthy doing something you like or are an Ivy League Business School Graduate (otherwise known as a bean counter) running another US business into the ground.

Well, Kevin, you certainly do find yourself in a conservative's dilemma here. The capitalist and managerial classes care only about the bottom line, and will tell you to quit your job if you don't like your working conditions and salary. Joining a union would be so left-wing that you wouldn't feel comfortable doing that, and if you and your colleagues tried to organize into one your jobs would probably be outsourced to a foreign country if that is at all possible in your line of work (I don't know what kind of work you do.). Even your hero, George W. Bush, has pubicly stated that outsourcing is good for the American economy! Cheap labor is one of the unstated goals of Republican economic policy: we are flooded by undocumented aliens who will work for practically nothing while our government does very little to secure our borders, and that is a Federal responsibility, states' rights notwithstanding; the President calls for "amnesty" for illegal aliens already living in this country who are working for very low wages; we promote "free trade" which helps the economies of other nations while suppressing the cost of labor in our own, and so on. In the meantime you and countless others are underpaid and overworked with very little recourse. What's a conservative to do?

Kevin, may I offer I thought?

I am sorry that you are working under such dreadful conditions. All politics aside, it is honestly abhorrant to me to know that a business functions this way in the 21st century.

Perhaps it is time for you to sit back and reflect on your situation. If you think objectively, you may find that it is time to cut your losses there and move on. I know nothing of your personal situation, but I changed careers several years ago, so I know what it is like. While the circumstances may have been different, I had also been working under near-impossible conditions for years. I had all the doubts and apprehension you can imagine about moving on to another field entirely.

But guess what? It was a good thing for me to have done. I now have a job I honestly enjoy, and am fortunate to have a wonderful boss, great colleagues, and a happy work environment. True, I make a LOT less money now, but I have changed my lifestyle accordingly. It isn't really all that difficult to do once you put your mind to it. But I am happy and productive in my professional life, and I no longer drag home all the issues and concerns of the working day.

The bottom line is this: remember that your career is just a means of paying the bills. It is merely what you DO, not who you ARE. A means to an end, if you will. Whatever it is you do, do it well and do your best at it, but don't let your job control your life.