I read David's coments with interest. Unfortunately, most companies don't
seem to have such a deliberate reason for what they do. It would be nice
if someone had a plan for the future. However, most companies are looking
at shrinking bottom lines and see the reduction of the workforce as the
easiest way to reduce their overheads.
It would be nice to think that employees could be retrained to fulfill new
needs based on a sound strategic direction. However, more often than not
companies seem to simply cut heads and thenexamine where they stand with
regard to current demands.
I will admit that my view may somewhat jaded. The company I worked for
would lay off people indiscriminately and then re-hire people (not the
same people) to fill their deficiencies. Example: The training budget
was seen as too big. A target of trainers to be cut was set. New
training requirements emerged and were met with a sub-contractor. The
manager who was responsible for those training requirements found that
they were longer term than originally thought. The decision was to roll
the subcontractors over into full-time training jobs while continuing to
lay off existing training staff, many of whom were competent and capable
of filling those requirements.
Regarding the Teacher Model...
I know many teachers who have to take summer jobs to make ends meet during
those three months. Others go back to school to acquire new skills so
they can successfully compete for jobs in other schools because the system
here does not reward this effort with more money. Not exactly the picture
you painted.
-- Clyde Howell The Howell Group Aiken, South carolina, USA orgpsych@aol.comLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>