Employment Problems in the US Essay

The unemployment rate has dramatically increased over the last several months. This increase has created many complications for the American people. Although the United States economy has created over 7 million jobs, there is still a long way to go until the economy is back on track.

* Downsizing: Reduction of the business portfolio by eliminating products and businesses units that aren’t profitable.

On the other hand, the success of the company is in large part due to the hard work of the staff who would lose their employment. In addition, it must be determined who would perform the work of the dismissed employees and if the company would be able to function without them. Moreover, the morale and productivity

Restructuring after a hiring freeze is never easy. It is truly very dirty work. In my experiences, restructuring meant realigning people’s pay to meet their newly scaled back responsibilities, which meant, “we are not going to fire you, but we are going to take some of your pay to keep you around.” Unfortunately, some people depend on their current pay, but not always, some are able to adjust out of necessity and live within their new means. Others, however, venture out looking for new or additional employment. Above all, when you address restructuring or scaling back pay, it is important to recognize the disengagement of your employees and find ways to improve their engagement while maintaining productivity.

Although America is the greatest country in the world through the protected rights of all citizens and the gifted freedoms and liberties that come with it, we used to be really horrific.

Downsizing has become a commonplace strategy for organizations to adopt in an effort to cut costs, eliminate redundancies, and streamline organizational systems. Over the last 15 years, many organizations have engaged in downsizing more than once. Most companies have learned from the mistakes of the past, but some companies are still trying to use the same tactics today that were used in the mid 1980s, that leave employees reeling.

retrenchment strategies are necessary for struggling firms wanting to reduce cost and become financially stable. I do not see the process as being unfair. It is very difficult to continue to make a profit during a time when people are not as financially stable as they may have been ten years ago. There are three forms of retrenchment: turnaround, divestment, and liquidation (Parnell, 2014). When weakening firms implement retrenchment actions within two years the firms are more successful at recovering (Tangpong, Abebe & Li, 2015). There are agencies and specialists who can be contracted as temporary CEOs or advisors to effectively make layoffs, budget cuts, and restructurings (Parnell, 2014). This speaclist can help to make necessary transitions and decisions.

The “lean and mean” organization resulting from downsizing has given way to emerging management concepts such as employee empowerment and self-managed work teams. These characteristics of the current workplace, in combination with a rise in the use of contingent labour, signify a serious cultural shift away from the traditional “pre-downsizing-era” workplace. Hierarchical, bureaucratic organizations which offered employment for life

This unrest could affect employees on many varying levels. It may divide the workforce into two categories; those who support the change and those who prefer the current way of business which could possible lead to an 8% increase in employee dissatisfaction due to the breakdown of interpersonal relation between peers. (Chapman, nd) This could also change the company policies and administration, as well as a large quantity of the work itself. Thereby, leading to a possible 40% increase in employee dissatisfaction. If change is not made, the company does face a loss in prosperity and hindered growth. (Chapman, nd)

Managers need to be aware of the negative effects layoffs can have on survivors. For instance, survivors exhibit increased absenteeism and turnover, lower productivity, and increased instances of sabotage (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2016). The productivity and morale of employees who survive a layoff will have a major impact on the future performance of a company (Broeckner, 1992). Once the layoff is complete the remaining workers are left to reorganize and take on the work of their former colleagues.

Senior managers are often faced with situations where they have to take decisions regarding termination and layoff of an employee, on the basis of several reasons. Layoffs are throbbing for employees as well as employers. If it is essential for the company to conduct layoffs, the managers should conduct them in a way that they impose minimum negative effect on the employee and the organization. In such circumstances, it is also critical to boosting the motivation level and morale of remaining workers of the organization. Most frequently, layoffs leave a bad impression on other employees of the company. An efficient and effective manager is competent and capable of avoiding negative impacts of layoffs on the terminating

Since 1979, this adds up to 43 million jobs in this country that have been removed and eliminated due to downsizing (Brockner, Konovsky, Cooper-Schneider, Folger, Martin, & Bies, 1994). One point one million of these jobs have been lost since 1987 in the defense industry due to budget cuts in the government (Brockner, Konovsky, Cooper-Schneider, Folger, Martin, & Bies, 1994). In 1998, it was expected that another 700,000 layoffs would take place in his government sector (Brockner, Konovsky, Cooper-Schneider, Folger, Martin, & Bies, 1994). In order to put this in perspective it is safe to say about that 50 percent more people have been victims of various layoffs and downsizing than have been victims of violent crimes (Brockner, Konovsky, Cooper-Schneider, Folger, Martin, & Bies, 1994). Downsizing in today's society is seen as a basic way of life for many United States companies (Brockner, Konovsky, Cooper-Schneider, Folger, Martin, & Bies, 1994). There is usually a first round of downsizing in many companies and this is often followed a short time later by a second round of downsizing (Brockner, Konovsky, Cooper-Schneider, Folger, Martin, & Bies, 1994). Sixty-seven percent of the firms that cut their jobs in any given year will do the same again in the following year (Brockner, Konovsky, Cooper-Schneider, Folger, Martin, & Bies, 1994).

The employees who were intrinsically motivated with the autonomy of a startup culture, who liked the challenges of new technologies and who had a sense of accomplishment whenever they achieved major milestones were getting extrinsically motivated by the reward of keeping their jobs in the new organization. Their performance took a hit and some employees even started to think if the new organization was the right fit for them. In my opinion, employees want to know the direction of the firm and if they are a part of firm’s vision. The morale of the employees would not have taken a hit if the new management had taken steps to understand the corporate culture of the smaller organization and arranged for a town hall meeting to actively solicit feedback and made the employees understand the reasons behind the layoffs.

When organizational changes are announced, particularly when there is downsizing involved, employees generally divide into one of two groups: those who will attempt to control their fate and those who want to get out before the changes occur. The group taking control will usually dig in, increase their productivity, hit their deadlines and do everything they can to shine in front of their managers hoping they will sail through the changes with their job intact. The remaining employees cope with the changes by avoiding them. You may see these employees taking longer lunch hours, coming in later and leaving earlier or simply not

Organizational downsizing is a ubiquitous factor that is sweeping through businesses all over the world. Organizations downsize for various reasons which are not always understood by the people that make up that organization. Not only does downsizing completely change the structure of the organization, it has many effects on the people within that organization. Employee morale, proficiency, motivation, commitment, and attitude can all be effected by downsizing. The way such a change is implemented in an organization is imperative to the way the employees handle such a change. Utilizing various scholarly articles I will go into detail how organizational downsizing effects those within the organization and strategies managers can use