"I'm not breaking down, I'm breaking out"

I've had it with the term "in these tough economic times". I've heard it used in many different forums but it always seems to be used as an excuse to reward less than what is earned based on inefficiencies and poor planning. Another one of the "five guys" team has become a victim of this way of thinking and his 10+ years of service to a single company (unheard of in this day and age) has been given 2 weeks to find another position in a company that just eliminated his or it's streetsville for him.

If you've read our blog (the count is up to 6 people now that Allison chimed in) then you know how the host feels about the World. Every single member of this blog has been effected by unemployment or the threat of unemployment in the past year...a pretty compelling stat. It's a cruel world and one that's not getting any easier...but whoever said it was supposed to be easy?

Seriously...who here got that little certificate when they were born that stated "Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen To the Bearer of this Document"? When times are tough at home couples either quite or band together. When times are tough on the ball field teams either change strategies or lose. But, for some reason, when times get tough for companies, the same husbands and wives that work harder at home to keep things together, make the easy decision to cut "other" people, masking inefficiencies that made them unable to compete, and creating new areas of waste that will make it impossible to be competitive in the future. It's so counterintuitive that I can't process it. The only counter argument I can think of is "think about it from the CEO's standpoint, he's responsible to the shareholders to make a profit, somethings got to be done". I still say that's very shortsighted, people are the only asset that you can truly mesure expenditures toward. A CEO can see how much he/she is paying to a department or individual and it's easy to make that number 0. But it's harder to measure day to day output and intangible contributions that come from an experienced staff...it's the kind of cut that bleeds slowly and steadily for years.

I know our friend will be fine. 'Merica was built on the backs of men like him that see adversity, take it head on and when punched in the gut, drink some tequila, roll up the sleeves, and take the fight right back to the enemy. He, like few others, understands that shit happens in this world and when it does, fuck it, drive on. Everybody loves the rally cap and the comeback story because everybody wishes they were somebody. Somebody that can. Well I think our pasts have shown that our friend is somebody that can.

So come on World...that the best you got! Maybe in these tough economic times you've gotten a little weak in the "doling out shit" department...see ya in a couple weeks when we right this ship and start kicking your ass again.