There will be “Daily Show” haters and the usual assholes who might want to comment and do their best to explain why the corporations must do what they have in order to benefit shareholders or the balance sheet. But, the way things are done illustrates a detachment from compassion and humanism with which it is difficult to argue.
Too often hard-line capitalists see compulsive greed as a positive attribute and lay-off announcements from corporations are merely another ‘number’. Seldom do we see any form of empathy or regret when CEO’s announce large number terminations, all the while enjoying the perks and paycheck afforded them from the company they are now offering up in a fire-sale.
At my place of employment, small as it may be compared to a behemoth like Chrysler or GM, the ‘trickle-up’ attitude is even expressed by our CEO. Little or no regard is granted to long time employees when twenty-seven lives are up heaved by lay-off announcements, as long as the commander at the helm of this apparently sinking ship continues to receive his paycheck, company car, baseball box seats and paid vacations. Why is this ship springing leaks? Because of very poor business decisions made by the man in the top executive office and not due to the meager thirty thousand dollar salary of the factory worker who was let go, without even a pittance of severance.
Is it possible for business to thrive without eventual needs for cuts in staff? Surely not, but the way business is conducted in the modern world appears to value a level coldness and disdain for fellow humans that rivals the most brutal armies throughout history….
You are a typical bleeding heart.
Personally, I will spend my time fighting for the poor defenseless millionaires (and billionaires) who might lose their cherished offshore tax havens.
Seriously, thanks for posting this; I am often astonished at how cold hearted we can be to our fellows.
The truth in humor is always amazing.
The story breaks my heart. What are the axed dealers going to do with all that inventory? Is the bank going to end up in the car business, too, when they go bankrupt?
I stopped working for my “career” ten years ago when I was learning of my overseas job postings from my colleagues, not from my manager, who couldn’t be bothered (or didn’t have the courage) to communicate to me directly. I realised that companies don’t give a fxxk about their employees in normal circumstances, let alone in a recession like this one.
Ever since I’ve worked for fun and nothing else – whenever I get bored I move on to something else. I don’t make so much money but my life is much, much better.
Of course it’s sad that these people lost their jobs (although, and I might not understand the way that it works in the states, I think they own their dealerships and so can continue as independents?).
But the reason that so many of them are going now is that the economy has, up until now, been artificially inflated through foreign credit. To bring it back down to the personal level, these people have, up until now, enjoyed lives that are considerably easier than in almost any other country in the world. Goods were artificially cheap in the states at the expense of countries who had tighter fiscal policies. These people have been able to sell cars easier and buy bigger tellies with their proceeds. Far sadder than their plight is that of the workers in places like China who manufacture the raw materials for the cars. It’s hard to feel too sorry for these after the (from a global perspective) wealthy lives that they’ve been able to lead at others’ expense.
i agree and disagree. while they, or even we, live or lived a better lifestyle, it doesn’t mean we didn’t get used to it, or feel entitled to it. the wool over the govt pulls over the eyes of the citizens removes a lot of that guilt. The more outsiders point it out, the more our executives in the white house, and on wall street look like absolute demons.
However, they’ve pushed us to become so much like them, that we’ll still be able to relate to losing a posh lifestyle, stepping back into reality won’t be easy, but is necessary. Stewart just wants the bastards that got them there to let them down easy, considering it was HQ that fugged up the business, not the little guy.
The retreat is necessary, but it doesn’t have to be heartless.
Well done, Ben, for completely missing the point of the post.
While a little perspective at times like these is always helpful, saying you find it hard to feel sorry for people being summarily and coldly laid off just because the citizens of less bountiful nations have it worse is frankly just as cold. I can see CEO’s in their ivory towers of plenty saying much the same things: “Why are they complaining? They’ve had it easy up until now, and they’re still better off than those in 3rd world nation X! They should be grateful we employed them at all!”
The Corporate focus on Greed, and the lifestyles many execs adopt to further that greed, is Anti-Human. It is paradoxical that we are told again and again to look to these organizations for our livelihoods when they clearly care nothing whatsoever for us as people, only usually being forced into basic human-regarding practices, such as a minimum working wage, by rule of Law, and even then they fight tooth and nail to stop laws like this from being passed. The cost to companies of a little basic human compassion in the workplace would be minimal, affecting their profit margins only slightly and yet too often we see thousands being laid off in the most efficient – ie, heartless – ways imaginable. That we allow this to persist speaks very badly of us as a species.
If you’re going to link to a video clip it’s usually a good idea to list the name of the show you’re linking and the day it aired. It helps search engines and allowed people to find another copy of the video if, for instance, they live outside of the US and ComedyCentral doesn’t work there.
How atrocious of these companies. There should be a law enforcing that a company MUST hire an additional 5% of it’s workforce every year, and fire no more than 1%.
Also, I shouldn’t have to worry about getting fired for doing what they might call ’substandard’ work, or having a poor work ethic. It’s the republican’s fault I’m lazy anyway. If my company is hemorraghing money, I shouldn’t have to worry about personal suffering, once they realize the company might be going down the tubes they should immediately sell all the assets and split the proceeds immediately among the lowest level employees only. Screw the evil share holders. Screw the evil management people.
Seriously, have a heart people. Just because I’m one of the lowest contributors in a department that as a whole has been an abject failure doesn’t mean that I should be without a job, I’ve got kids to feed too you know, and the government stipend I receive hardly covers my section 8 mortgage payment.
I guess some people might argue that a company that doesn’t stay lean will eventually lose ALL of it’s employees, but the people who think like that are usually the snobby a-holes driving their children to private schools in luxury cars, and will be the first ones I rob when my unemployment check runs out.
So, should we force CEOs to change their lifestyles and illegalize firing people? If sales of cogs go down 40% for any reason whatsoever, 40% of the cogmakers probably need to be cut. Many times, this isn’t because of so-called “bad business decisions” by the CEOs, but rather the economic impact of the largest recession in decades. What would you suggest a good business decision would be if a CEO were to realize that 40% of his business was going away the next year? Cut $500,000 from his own salary and pay everyone else the same? A good business decision would be, again, to cut excess labor.
With unemployment how it is, with a year’s benefits, how can anyone but the most wretched loafer complain about this?
I figured the ‘it’s the republican’s fault I’m lazy’ woulda tipped people off to the nature of the post.
I guarantee that if the average, lower level employee actually sat in on the higher level meetings – especially marketing meetings – their ears would bleed at the nonsense that they hear.
There is a definite clique mentality, a hierarchy that is not allowed to be challenged or upended, that is the root of the problem.
In that, as an executive you should be paid your higher salary because you make the right decisions, not paid a higher salary because you make -the- decisions.
a great way to start a post is to essentially say that if you disagree you’re an asshole
What some of the commenters here are doing is exactly what I theorized would happen, immediate and blind defense of CEOs, capitalism and greed.
Don’t get me wrong, drive and ambition are great attributes to have when leading a company, but when one hoards 90% of the pie while the business tanks because of his poor decisions (yes, he made bad business moves) while everyone else who afforded him the luxuries he now enjoys are being cast to the street without a “thank you” or modicum of compassion, it indicates a problem. Yes, the flailing of our ship (company) is a direct result of the Captain’s steerage. He has snobbishly turned his nose up at opportunities that would have brought great dividend to the balance sheet because he felt it was beneath his ’stature’ and subsequently, the stature of the company. When we were notified that one of our biggest customers, who account for nearly half the revenue, was moving operations and therefore moving to a different supplier, our great leader sat on his hands. We have not replaced that account with anything near what would be required to stay solvent, even though those ‘lesser’ opportunities are still available to provide great revenue.
Instead, our CEO, as many others in this horrible economic situation, has retained each and every perk and every dime of salary while the rest of the company has been imposed with furlough days and as of last week, layoffs. He sits in the box seats at baseball games, collecting his salary, driving the company provided luxury car, with company provided gasoline, and taking company provided ‘vacations’, even as many who gave blood, sweat and tears over the years are being left to flounder.
But, as you say, business isn’t fair. I can only tell you that the bullshit in the meetings of ‘pulling together’ and ‘getting through this’ is a little fucking old. If you are going to rape and pillage the company and her employees, at least have the decency not to wear a shit eating grin the entire time. Try wearing a bit of sympathy, even if for appearances only…
Speaking of the sympathy, my company was part of a merger that happened when I first got hired. A friend who recommended the job was very enthusiastic about the company, and said it was a great place to work. And she was right…at least until the merger began to show.
We were the smaller of the two companies, and our CEO was very compassionate in regard to his employees. The retention at this place was unbelievable compared to some “shops” I had worked at. But when the larger corporation began to feel the pinch, they laid off and then “strongly suggested” that something be done in our division. Our CEO got everyone together and told everyone that layoffs had happened elsewhere, but our business unit was strong and the corporate heads had not specifically asked us to lay anyone off, so we weren’t going to. Less than three weeks later, 40 people lost their job, including my friend.
I thought he was just another lying exec, until he quit in protest. It goes to show that not everyone up there looks at the numbers and dollar signs, but they’re apparently not at the very top, either.
Thank God Bush followed by Obama supported by the brave and omniscient men and women of our Congress and Senate had the wisdom to pump billions of dollars into these companies. Surely the sheer genius of that plan will deliver us from these problems soon. And if it doesn’t, then the solution is clear, we need to increase the amount of taxpayer money we spend on idiotic government programs like the stimulus plan. We should also sprinkle Unicorn tears on the desks of the CEOs and encourage the towns affected by the downturn to legalize gay marriage in an effort to get the millions and millions of dollars generated by the influx of gay couples that will bring. And we should just admit that Christianity and the United States of America are evil, and commit mass suicide to save the buffy headed marmosets. Sigh.
Amen.
Why are so many people so dense that they COMPLETELY miss the point of this post? BGH is not maligning capitalism or unaware that people in Third World countries live lives of desperation. The main point of this post (boys and girls, do you remember how to find the “main point” like we learned in English class?) is that these people could have been let go in a much more compassionate and classier manner. Would it have killed upper management to make kindly personal phone calls and take back their crap cars so their employees weren’t suddenly left with NO income and feeling like nobody cared?
So, how about it posters? Can YOU people “be a f@cking person”?
Thank you for reminding me of what Stewart said. It was so startingly honest and dead-on that it took my breath away for a second.
I barely had time to think, “Yes, how simple the answer is: just be a fucking person!” before he was on to the next thing. Whether you love Jon Stewart or hate him, at times he utters absolute truth.