Corporate Staff Reduction and the Baby Boomer

There is nothing sadder than to see a fellow worker leaving against their will. I've seen this happen again and again recently, and it just does not get any easier. This is especially true when the fellow worker is in their fifties, and has more than twenty years in with the company. You just know that the chances of that person getting rehired at an equivalent rate of pay with another company is next to nil. You also know that there is going to be a long patch bad news for them. Marraiges are going to dissolve, houses are going to be lost, and social networks are going to dissolve.

I truly do not know what the answer is. On the one hand, I think it should be made hard for a company to get rid of a long time employee, yet I know that companies need to be able to do it in order to survive in the current global marketplace.

For instance, I get the impression that most companies would like to hire most of their employees as temps to avoid things like medical insurance, and retirement. It would appear to be an advantage to the company. Yet, this attitude has fostered a whole generation of employees with absolutely no loyalty to any one company. They will move down the road with their portable retirement funds the second someone offers them a better deal. I've heard hiring directors complain bitterly about that.

I am sure that eventually, this will all get worked out. In the meantime, I suspect that the boomer generation will get caught in the middle. Hooray for us!