The Other Victims Of Downsizing

When we think of the cutbacks in organizations around the world, we think first (and rightly so) of those whose jobs were lost. They, after all, are on the beach---looking for their next opportunity.

We tend to dismiss the survivors—those who remain on the workforce. Aren’t they the “lucky ones”? They dodged the bullet, made the cut, avoided the axe, etc, etc. What isn’t mentioned is that these survivors are now doing their own jobs---and likely those of those who have exited, plus perhaps some more.

The short term result is relief, then stress, then burnout—and…then who knows what? We have yet to measure the human cost of the “piling on” that the downsized economy has thrust upon who appear to be the most efficient and productive workers—those who survived the initial onslaught.

We are quickly becoming a business culture of “all chiefs and no Indians”. The essential tasks left to workers no longer on board are being done by those higher up—and yet these managers best not reveal a crack in their armor. To do so would expose them as “stressed out” to those they report to.

This must obviously be a failure to delegate—but then again, there must be someone to delegate TO….someone capable of doing the job. This gets tougher as people make their exit.

To those at the highest levels of an organization, it is all INVISIBLE. Since they are not engaged in the multitude of duties at the “line level”, they simply assume that all is OK. When fires need to be put out, they may hear of it, but they are not actively involved. Solutions come easy to problems they don’t fathom the intricacies of. As my engineer tags his e-mails with: “Nothing is impossible to the man who doesn’t have to do it!”

If you are dealing with this reality, I wish you luck! Time management skills become even more important-below is a quick video that I hope helps!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hqm1qzLXPA

I would continue, but I need to complete my TO-DO list for today!!! If you would like this blog in your box daily, let me know: tim.moore@citcomm.com