Reading headlines and news opinions about layoffs isn’t half as appalling when something like that happens close to you. especially something in the next cubicle at work. It almost makes one think that there’s absolutely no value for good work anymore in the world. I mean, a guy comes al the way from a different city, starts working, dedicated his entire life and thoughts to the work, but all he is for the company is a “resource”, with a price-tag attached. When the burger’s too expensive, they go for the hotdog. Bye-bye burger. Do these “HR” people even think once about what impact would this have on, the other employees (‘resources’)? Aren’t they taught psychology in their MBAs?
In a way, firing a professional isn’t too different from employing a poor jobless to do your gardening and then one fine day, just asking him to stop.
I think the problem is in the way we have perceived the contributors of knowledge and work to the making of successes. We tend to look first at the success – a company, money, a building. And then, like a pyramid chain, we tend to go downwards and downwards till we reach the point where the man who put his heart and soul into probably the smallest of the working parts, is the one looked upon as merely a liability. We don’t start by looking at him, that selfless contributor who sold his soul to dedicate himself for something he hardly even profits from.
Marx’s ‘alienation’ couldn’t be more true.
