“Every morning he is so excited to get to work.” said Kathryn Li, talking about her husband, Jiasun Li, a hardworking engineer and my colleague at Siebel Systems. She continued, “But today he is different, he is scared to get out of bed”. I thought to myself, “Why would anybody not be scared with all the layoffs rumors floating around?” while I was picking him up from his home. That Friday, the worst nightmare of Jiasun had come to be true. He was one of the 3200 employees who got laid off.
When Jiasun got that job right after Graduate School, he was exhilarated. His motivations were simple. He wanted to work for a company which assembled the greatest minds in the Hi-Tech industry. Money was never a part of his quest. Jiasun always said, “Work honestly and money will find its way to you.” Oracle Corporation acquired Siebel Systems in 2006. While 3200 employees got the boot that day, few executives got big fat paychecks. “How can you do this to me? I was working for the last 5 years an average of 60 hours a week. I never questioned my manager and always sported great team ethic. Where is he now?” Jiasun asked the HR representatives who were sent in to deliver the awful news. “What have I done to deserve this? This is not fair!!”, he argued while the security personnel escorted him out. “What is our layoff policy? Couldn’t they have given him a notice of 3 months? Will the security escort me out when I am shown the door? Is this a standard procedure in the industry?” These were the some of the thoughts that lingered in our minds who did not share the same fate that day.
Jiasun Li joined the class action lawsuit against his former employer for unpaid overtime. Oracle Corporation settled with 800 employees and paid an average of $2...
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...ely to attract and retain talent if they could have proper policies and procedures in place for such sensitive situations. Arranging an exit interview with the Human Resources and involving the first line managers in the process rather than delegating it entirely to the HR would have been a better strategy. The management should provide a proper explanation about the unfortunate event and support the employees in their future employment easing their pain.
In conclusion, I certainly think that practicing process fairness creates value and is fundamental for forward thinking organizations as it affects the motivations of the employees. If organizations could adapt better policies and procedures and communicate with the employees in a better way, it will definitely develop trust and increase the morale within the workforce while increasing performance and productivity.
Under his leadership, companies like Scott Paper and Sunbeam-Oster benefited from massive layoffs designed to give the illusion of profitability. This is in stark contrast to what great leaders do during the inevitable downturn. According to Collins, great leaders are looking for way to find and keep great talent, especially during dips in earnings or productivity. The idea of employee-churn to great organizations is paramount to a failure in leadership. When hiring, great leaders “take the time to make rigorous A+ selections right up front” (GTG, p.75) Good to Great leaders take their time with important hiring decisions. It is more important to have the right people on the bus and in the right seats then to have a bus filled with people who do not belong. Letting people who do not belong on the bus comes down to two simple questions: 1. “If it were a hiring decision (rather than a “should this person be off the bus?” decision) would you hire the person again? 2. If the person came to you to tell you he or she is leaving to pursue an exciting new opportunity, would you feel terribly disappointed or secretly relieved?” (GTG,
Braaksma says "As frustrating as the work can be, the most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers at one factory told me that the unit I was working in would be shut down within six months and moved to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour"(Braaksma, 2005).The regret Braaksma felt knowing he would be heading back to college and classrooms while others spend their working years in the factory and he only spends his summer break there. Workers made good wages yet was encouraged by many of his coworkers to continue with his studies so he can do better for himself
Harold had been with the company going on forty-five years. There was no doubt that his contributions over the past few decades helped the once intimate business flourish into an international corporation. As his sixty-fifth birthday rolled around, Harold was greeted with a staff party and a mandatory retirement notice that was effective two weeks from that date. Harold was stunned, inasmuch as he had no intentions whatsoever to leave his position with the company; indeed, he was still fully able to complete his duties better than any new hire ever could, not to mention the fact that his attendance record was spotless. Needless to say, Harold was completely taken aback with the discovery that his company loyalty was cast aside in order to accommodate a younger workforce.
Ensuring equality among the people promotes fairness and reduces conflict and jealousy. By treating everyone equally we maintain our respect and are able to work together better. The rule we create treats everyone the same and does not provide any special treatment to any specific person. As long as everyone does what is required of them they will obtain what is rightfully due to them.
...gree and believe that they could get real results if everyone would consistently apply the company’s principles. I have learned personally in the business world consistency means a lot, all employees should have the same consequences. By letting go employees, managers and executives shows that the rules apply to all levels. It will cause everyone involved to have more respect for the company even if they don’t agree with the decision.
Through out his tenure at Sunbeam,Al Dunlap’s advocated profit by firing many employees and shutting down many factories.If we look at it in the short term ,this approach seems very attractive as it brings in quick short term gains.In the long term ,however, such a decision would not ensure the sustainability of the company. Profitability and responsibility can and should be combined in an ideal world, however it is clear that they are at least partially contradictory. Shareholder pressure should not force a company to make short-term decisions that might be detrimental to the long-term profitability of the company.
...ervices to ensure that hiring and testing processes are equitable and legal. The Lewis v. City of Chicago case was found in favor of the plaintiffs that may have been an oversight in which the city simply desired to create a manageable hiring list. Illegal classifications and hiring projection errors created a case where a class action group was victims of disparate treatment. Hiring and promotional processes must remain fair and consistent to maintain a positive as well as legal employer.
The United States has an abundance of fair practices laws that intend to make things fair, yet competitive. I feel that these laws are absolutely effective in helping to balance our country. Fair practices in business protect the businesses as well as the consumers in many ways including: monopolization protection, conspiring to fix pricing or allocate customers, price gouging, and many other important protections (SBA, 2013).
Seitel stated Circuit City’s management responded to the CFO’s departure by offering an additional cash in of $250,000 on top of his $1,000,000 a year (p.218). Management was more concerned about losing one high up employee, but did nothing to help preserve the jobs of 3,400 sales employees. Management should have been counseled to treat all employees with equality and dignity regardless of position. Interestingly, “The firings…are expected to reduce expenses for the electronics retailer by $110 million in fiscal year 2008” (Mui, 2007). In comparison, Circuit City’s CFO’s salary was $1 million. One top-level manager’s pay was almost equal to the total expenses that firing employees cut. This showed that lower level employees are dispensable and not as valuable to the company as a higher level employee
Gomez-Mejia et al. (2016) maintain that “clear communication, marking the occasion, and listening to workers” are several ways to facilitate the transition for the remaining staff (p. 195). HR can support the managers in this endeavor by providing counseling to assist layoff survivors, as well as terminated employees, in understanding and dealing with the changes (Sitlington & Marshall, 2011). Research suggest that communication from a variety of sources such as HR, help employees to understand the circumstances and increase their perception of fairness, which helps to negate the undesirable consequences of the layoff (Tourish, Paulsen, Hobman & Bordia, 2004). Proper information dissemination through the HR team can also help to squelch the spread of unfounded rumors, internally as well as externally through the media, according to Gomez-Mejia et al.
Further investigations revealed Foxconn had been guilty of unsafe and unfair working environments long before the incidents, which included the employment of extended working hours, discrimination, and military management techniques (Xu & Li, 2013). Due to Foxconn’s sole focus on maintaining businesses relationships by fulfilling Apple’s demand of technical products, their subsequent mistreatment of employees was exacerbated and generated 80-100 hours of forced overtime per week (Xu & Li, 2013). However, in an attempt to combat the negative publicity, each firm denied responsibility for the incidents, which ultimately added fuel to the media fire (Xu & Li, 2013). Since then, each firm has enacted superior regulations designed to maintain efficiency while recognizing limitations on labor hours and increased spending on compliance audits (Chandler & Werther, 2014). Yet, as Foxconn continues to sustain their global leadership and Apple’s profits remain unaffected, the disadvantages associated with the incidents at Foxconn have not transcended the outcomes. From a profit standpoint, the increase in spending and subsequent alterations of labor methods serve as the biggest disadvantage to each company’s bottom line. However, after both companies attempted to negate blame, their ensuing developments indicate assuming responsibility was the best avenue to recoup reputation issues and focus on long-term growth. Therefore, the greatest advantage for both companies was their heightened reputation resulting from increased transparency and the employment of business models focused on the welfare of all supply chain
The structural-functional analysis of jobs in the U.S. is governed by the workforce stratification and technology. The more educated and diverse a society is the better society’s job market is served. This social economic separation of class has been both good and bad for society. Many workers at the lower levels of employment are both pleased and displeased with many aspects of work. Though this fact also holds true with most any job at any level, pay scale often compensates for endurance of a particular job type. The security of a person’s job also is an issue that in today’s economic times forces one to be prepared for change. This is to say that even if one’s field of expertise is needed today it may not be tomorrow. This type of ever-changing job market leads many to believe that another socio-economic change may occur at any time. This change was apparent with the transition into the industrial age and again in the information age. These concerns caused stress, various health issues, a...
Further investigations revealed that Foxconn had been guilty of unsafe and unfair working environments long before the incidents, which included the employment of extended working hours, discrimination, and military management techniques (Xu & Li, 2013). Due to Foxconn’s sole focus on maintaining businesses relationships by fulfilling Apple’s demand of technical products, their subsequent mistreatment of employees was exacerbated and generated 80-100 hours of forced overtime (Xu & Li, 2013). However, in an attempt to combat the negative publicity, each firm denied responsibility to the incidents, which ultimately added fuel to the media fire (Xu & Li, 2013). Since then, each firm has enacted superior regulations designed to maintain efficiency while recognizing limitations on labor hours and increased spending on compliance audits (Chandler & Werther, 2014). Yet, as Foxconn continues to sustain their global leadership and Apple’s profits remain unaffected, the disadvantages associated with the incidents at Foxconn have not transcended the outcomes. From a profit standpoint, the increase in spending and subsequent alterations of labor methods serve as the biggest disadvantage to each company’s
Promoting fairness in the classroom not only gives the teacher respect but also gives the students a sense of safeness and trust within the classroom. Creating an environment that revolves around fairness, trust and respect will be beneficial to all of the children in the class. The terms respect and trust are pretty straightforward. There doesn’t need to be a debate on what those two mean, but the same cannot be said for fairness. When one usually hears the word “fair” it is often looked at as synonymous to the term “equal” but the two are not the same, especially in a classroom setting. The term fairness on the classroom level means that the individual students are given what he or she may need in order to be successful; fairness does not
Foxconn Technology Group is a company in China that makes products for many of our leading companies here in the United States, such as, Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. In 2010, 12 employees of Foxconn committed suicide and numerous failed suicide attempts due to oppressive conditions of the company. Workers would jump from 15 story building due to the working conditions and hours. The company employed 1 million workers with a turnover rate of 40 percent. Workers only made minimum wage which, in 2010 was around $130 per month. Workers would work on average over 3 times the legal limit of hours for anyone (Bethel University).