Monday
(0)People love to demonize greedy bosses who don't care for their workers. However, after going through this bout of downsizing my company, I know that my surviving employees are not unhappy about the change, because it was accompanied by a renewed sense of discipline and focus. Employees – or, at least, my employees – have understood and responded positively to their boss' determination to succeed financially. A boss who tolerates low financial returns will not deliver the wherewithal to provide raises and job security. In retrospect, my biggest sin was not in laying people off during my bout of downsizing – despite the pain involved – but in not demanding enough of them or myself previously. In short, I should have been more greedy ... I would have been more socially useful.
- Friedrich Blowhard last Saturday, in the course of explaining why he has been obliged to stop blogging for a while
Having had to downsize a company myself, I know exactly how he feels. Laying off people I counted as friends was the most appalling thing I have ever had to do, but I was haunted, even before I had to do it, by the thought that if I didn't, many more people, just as deserving, would suffer in the near future. I spent my time thinking how I could lay off one person to secure the jobs of many. Was I evil?
Posted by Bishop Hill at February 7, 2005 07:29 PM
No of course you were not evil; ultimately one's own welfare is one's own responsibility and nobody else's. The nobility of freedom lies with the strength required to bear the burden of insecurity that comes with it.
Posted by mike at February 7, 2005 10:10 PM
