I work for the federal government (IT project manager). As you probably know they are in the middle of a layoff period. I thought about getting out ahead of the curve and finding a new job before the layoffs hit. However, when I got to thinking, it was, like, I *enjoy* my job. How many people can say that they get paid a good salary for doing something that they *enjoy*. If I won the lottery, I'd consider doing his job for free.
So, given the layoffs, I got to thinking about this topic. Nobody has a "right to a job". You can't say "I got in the door, so now you have to pay me for life.". HOWEVER, I did not like the way that they are doing these layoffs. Very good people are being let go while people deserving of being given the boot get to stay, just based on the luck of the draw. I think people that do damn good work deserve more job protection. You might say that that typically comes naturally... a company would WANT to keep those that do good work. Well, not always. I've have a friend who was let go because the business owner disagreed with his politics despite the employee being the most dedicated and responsible staff member. Owner just said "Business is slow so I had to cut somebody", but a month after dropping my friend the guy hired someone new to replace him. And they had had heated discussions in the past about political issues. So my friend put 2 and 2 together.
People brought up that we have good labour laws. And to that end, I agree. However, the problem I have seen is the APPLICATION of those laws. In many cases people find it easier to accept that they need to find a new job than to fight the injustice of losing the old job. In 2000 I worked for a consulting company in Halifax and the regional office head made a policy that everyone had to work 20 hours overtime per month until we were caught up on the workload. My project manager told a colleague that he could be exempt from the policy because he was caring for sick parents and couldn't work the time. The office head fired her for contradicting his policy on the grounds that if you give one exemption, others are going to complain that their circumstances merited an exemption as well. We had a going away party with this project manager and we asked her if she was going to fight her dismissal.... all of us workers backed her point of view. We were all sympathetic to our co-worker's situation with his parents. Anyhow, the project manager said that she had seen a lawyer and figured that it wasn't worth the fight, particularly since other companies had already approached HER to work for them.
It really bothers me when I see the good employees get the boot and not the bad. Or even when we see examples from the Mattell factory down in the U.S.. They had a system in place that attracted the most productive factory work force and they boasted about their company's ability to produce their product at low cost because their workers were just so much more dedicated than in other similar factories. The company turned a huge profit, and used that money to shut down the factory and move it overseas. So, in part due to their strong work ethic, the workers were now unemployed.
I guess in all things, the world is not just.
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