This is also called "Removing The Spine from A Very Successful Company"
Wait till you wrap your head around this one!
I started my first job in manufacturing in a sweatshop in 1947. Yes, I was fourteen. It didn't kill me by the way. That's a whole other subject I will cover soon. Well, in sixty years of working, I had to learn something. I hope you will give me that! So please read this story, and pay attention so that your company isn't next. A person I know very well that is a hard working, honest, and knowledgeable employee has worked for a local company for eight years now. The company is about twenty-five years old and manufacturers precision parts. They were doing about twenty-five million a year with about one hundred fifty employees many of who are highly skilled precision machinists and welders etc. About two years ago the retiring and, very wealthy owner sold the company, and here is where it gets interesting. The new management arrived, and of course they gave the famous speech I like to call "Don't worry men, were not going to change a thing." I've heard it so many times I can recite it in my sleep!As a matter of fact, someone should make a movie with that name. Oh, I almost forgot, the new CEO brought in a bean counter to grind on everyone for more production, and of course, cut down on the manpower, and yearly pay raises. A real hero type that wanted to make an impression, and she did that OK! I'll make the rest short, and sweet. The new genius in charge has replaced most of the key self educated non college graduate formen with a bunch of young college graduates who are long on book theory, which is admirable, but very short on practical experience. I like to call that form of academic snobbery "Fiscal Suicide" , or "NASA style management" He also held a series of small intimate department meetings where he asked for ideas on improving production etc. Those who complained or made suggestions are either no longer with the company, or have been humiliated, and demoted. Well of course he didn't stop at that. The next thing he did was to take most of the best and most knowledgeable lead men, and foreman, and give them insulting reviews; no annual pay raises, and knocked them down to lower positions. The result, of course, is now that the new college wonder boy managers are making terrible mistakes, and very expensive, wasteful bad decisions. Time and material are being wasted, and the remaining old timers are bailing out of this debacle. It has taken less than two years to nearly destroy what was once a beautifully running and profitable company. This house of cards will be caving in shortly. If this all sounds familiar, and you work at a company like that, you better start looking around for a new job, or to start your own business which is the only real form of security you will ever have, unless, of course, you are a bad manager too!Just an afterthought -- as a self educated, non-college graduate, self-made millionaire, I have come to hate academic snobbery. I am however a great admirer of higher education, but realize that it doesn't make you a genius or any better than the people that were not fortunate enough to graduate from college. When I was first promoted from a factory laboring job to management after I returned from the Korean War I was saddened and disappointed at the time to find out that many in management referred to the employees as the "donkeys in the shop”, and I didn't hesitate to tell them so either. Earning more money does not make you better than another person. When a company starts dealing with people as if they are just numbers it is the beginning of the downhill slide for them, and they deserve it!
Walt
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