Until you see how the corporate machine works on the inside, and start considering issues dealing with investor confidence, sales growth, increases in earnings from one year to the next, trying to find a way to boost the bottom line (again relating to investors and capital), so that the markets don't react adversely.....you can't get an accurate picture of how companies work and the issues they face.......and the things I mentioned are the tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps I was wrong by calling it "The Real World" perhaps I should call it the "Real Business World".

Being aware of poor people, people without health care, people struggling to get by...does not give on sufficient insight into the corporate machine...particularly since you want to change it. I've yet to see see people who call for same things you do, that have first hand knowledge of corporations from the inside. Because if you had first hand knowledge, you'd realize that some of the things you want are unrealistic.

Layoffs, downsizing, job cuts, mergers, shifting work to foreign countries....are all sad parts of the corporate life. It's unfortunate, but they're neccessary for the long term health of the corporation. You don't want to believe that because of the people it hurts, or because it would be better for people towards the bottom of the economic ladder. But it's still neccessary.

Corporations are not social welfare organziations, they were started for the purpose of making a profit. No one starts a company thinking about the people they could employ.

I'm not against the idea of Unions, I'm against the practice. In my mind Unions should merely represent the workers and make sure they get paid fairly, they get the proper benefits and that they have safe work environments. BUT, Unions want to dictate how the company is run, what materials are used, where areas the company can do business, if the company can let lay people off if they no longer need them, heck if the Union had their way..the people they represent would get paid more then the people that actually run the company!

If you ask me, Unions should stop at work enviroments, benefits and wages...and let the company run itself. If they are layoffs, you have a severence package that is part of the deal and leave it alone..you accept that layoffs are part of business.

Currently there isn't a consultants Union, (although I hear rumblings of people trying to create one ) Quite frankly, I hope it stays that way. It would only get in the way of progres and I think it would hurt us in the long run. Autoworkers get more money (in terms of % of salary) then I do, when I have down time...so it would help me $ wise, if there was a Union...BUT, in terms of career opportunities and industry progress...I think it's a bad idea.

I don't want to see an IT union either, I hope to god I never see one. A common thread through all the assignments I have, is that I'm trying to make a Business Process more efficient: re-engineering a software app, replace an existing software with a better one, supply chain efficiencies, help turn around the operational efficiency/competency of an IT shop, etc.

To do that, I have to reccomend new technologies, evaluate personnel, decide who needs to go, who can be re-trained, etc. It's hard enough to convince a company to invest in the short term costs of re-engineering their IT Business Process/Technologies, (Businesses can rarely see long term benefits with tech, but that's neither here nor there) but it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to do it if we have to give them 12 months of severence pay, can only layoff X number of people and/or can only use certain technologies, the workers have a say in what technologies we can use, the workers are trying to control how the company outsources things. <shudder>


Anyway, I've said my piece.



Peace,




M2

The Blog: http://www.analyticalwealth.com/

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