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Establishing rules for the new workplace - Economics
USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Nov, 2002 by John A. Challenger
The new environment of just-in-time employment policies and no-fault job loss is truly democratic in that everyone from the CEO to the assembler on the third shift is vulnerable. The boss who terminates 10% of his workforce knows that he or she could easily be next. No matter the position and level, all jobs are precarious.
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The recognition on the part of all individuals of common and shared job security/insecurity has led to the development of programs aimed at helping people bridge to their next job, and to the tacit expectation that all companies must provide a secure safety net to terminated individuals. The safety net that each individual has come to expect and feel entitled to in the case of job loss includes three primary components: severance, health insurance continuation, and outplacement services--job-seeking support to reduce the duration of unemployment and improve the quality of the worker's next position. Most organizations used to throw their people out on the street with no help at all, assuming that the termination was entirely the worker's fault and not the firm's. Today, ethical companies realize that the blame must be shared.
Despite our current troubles, it seems the government and Federal Reserve have used monetary and fiscal tools to smooth out the highs and lows of the economic cycle. It is also possible that the economy itself is more resilient, better able to weather the economic storms because of deregulation domestically, free trade internationally, and the demise of other artificial constraints. If enhanced economic resiliency turns out to be true, then shorter, V-shaped recessions may be in our future--steep, short slowdowns with equally quick returns to periods of growth and long-term stability. Perhaps companies really are less flabby and more agile. Such freedom of movement may create an environment in which companies swiftly recognize upturns and invest in new areas of growth when the economy perks up.
For the moment, downsizing is still rampant. Companies must swiftly pare costs because of the profit recession. Shareholders insist that expenses fall in proportion to revenue declines to ensure that earnings remain steady. However, downsizing damages the organization in the long term as morale is irreparably harmed, corporate memory is lost, and continuity of decisionmaking is broken.
The forces of technology, globalization, deregulation, shareholder power, and free agency have combined to change the social contract between the individual and the organization. For workplace designers and suppliers, the new roles pose new challenges. How do you design space for a worker who is much more mobile?
Wireless technology is unchaining the worker from his or her desk or cubicle. In fact, it may have been the electrical and phone cables that tethered workers to their desks and offices in the first place. Fixed equipment is disappearing. Batteries are replacing cables and power supplies. Workers are carrying their offices on their backs and to their homes. For these "road warriors," the workplace is sometimes the car, airport, ballpark/golf course, or garden.
