There for a while we were all in this recession together. Kumbaya, baby. There was nary a business that wasn’t experiencing a serious downturn in revenue, and every small business I came in contact with was cutting costs, downsizing, or laying people off—baling water just to keep the boat afloat. Once the large corporations let go hundreds of thousands of workers in 2010, their profits reappeared. Lucky them. Stock prices began to rise. Not so, for many small- and medium-sized businesses.
Times have remained tough. Bottom lines are thin or nonexistent and the only alternative has been to ride the pony through this briar patch of an economy. Some businesses have shown an ability to climb out of their hole. Lucky them. Those encountering an industry sea change, in addition to a crap economy—not so much. Indeed, there is an ever increasing gap between businesses on hold and businesses flourishing. Those doing well are hiring good people from those still waiting for (Godot?) the economy to “rebound.”
We have a great culture at our company. People have worked here for decades, good, solid people, talented people, some of the best in town. We are very grateful they found a place to work that they love and we’ve been the beneficiary of their loyalty and passion. On the more pragmatic side, the economy has been so rotten they couldn’t have found another job even if they’d wanted to. Until now.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that sooner or later, as better paying jobs become available, those who eat what they kill, in particular, will leave to find new hunting grounds. I can’t blame them.
The good news is, the number of really smart college graduates sitting at home watching Seinfeld reruns or worse, bagging groceries at the local supermarket, is staggeringly high. We’re hoping we can tap that market effectively, replacing departing seasoned veterans with a whole new crop of digitally savvy, high-energy prospects. Although change is unsettling to many, it’s a good thing, an opportunity to take stock and improve one’s position.
I’ve rarely seen it work the other way.
I absolutely agree w/ you L.C. – "change" is good – in fact it’s a paradoxical truth that the only constant IS change. The cosmic law of nature is this; nothing is static. Finally it occurs to me when the powers-that-be forces a shot-gun marriage between “hope and change" – we become awash in intractable problems. This is probably the result of the error of change management via central planning and may be a valuable lesson to remember.
Posted by: Ron in Alexandria, MN | September 08, 2011 at 04:21 PM