In a CNN article on “How to keep your job” Tyler Cowen (of Marginal Revolution fame) recommends that you approach your boss and preemptively volunteer yourself for a wage cut. So, even as money keeps flowing to the top, mass media outlets are now recommending that workers volunteer themselves for further wage cuts, all under the name of ‘practical advice’? Could a more deranged, oppressive response to mass robbery possibly be imagined?
Employers looking to cut personnel costs can either lay people off or lower their wages. Though there are exceptions, employers are generally more willing to do the former.
Truman Bewley, a professor of economics at Yale University, has shown that’s because they fear low worker morale and even sabotage. Basically, they don’t want unhappy people around who may cause trouble.
So if your job really is in danger (and you’d rather have less money than no money) you need to address that fear head-on. Let the big guy know you’re willing to work, contentedly and productively, at a lower wage than you currently receive.
Some possible openers: “I don’t consider salary a final measure of my self-worth.” Or “My friend Peter stayed on at his job at lower pay to help keep his company afloat. I really admire that.”
Gladly, there are others with a different idea of “pragmatic” advice for today’s worker:
* At the FM Logistics Co. in Woippy, France, 125 workers charged into a meeting of five company managers and held the poor creatures hostage for a day. At least 475 workers at FM Logistics, which is owned by Hewlett-Packard Co., were facing the specter of “redundancy” as HP sought to move its printer packaging operations to the cheaper labor pool in Malaysia. By midnight, the company promised “”new proposals on redundancy talks,” according to Reuters.
* At 3M’s pharmaceutical factory in Pithiviers, 50 miles from Paris, workers exploded upon hearing that 110 of them were to lose jobs. They surrounded the manager and forced him into his office, where he was held hostage for 24 hours until 3M agreed to resume negotiations.
* The president of Sony France in March was locked in his office by employees who barricaded the doors and windows with tree trunks.
* Angry factory workers at the Caterpillar plant in Grenoble took four managers hostage on April Fool’s Day.
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