I haven't really been following the saga of Northwest Airlines very closely. They aren't a major player at RDU and given that they rate as the absolute least favorite airline of my dear wife (who has some ugly air war stories to justify it), their woes just don't make it onto my radar screen.
Anyway, it seems that bankruptcy hasn't gotten NWA back to a viable business, so there is talk of additional layoffs and potential strikes. And as if things weren't bad enough between mgmt and employees, it seems last week an "employment assistance company" (management rule #1: blame it on the consultants) passed on some helpful tips to some machinists who are about to be layed off, titled "101 Ways To Save Money".
Unfortunately, the tips fail any miniscule test of sensitivity towards these employees. For example, #46: Don't be shy about pulling something you like out of the trash. Now I'm pretty cheap. Ok, really cheap. And the list has some good ideas in it. In fact, I do some of those things. But sensitively presented or suggested they are not. Speaking as someone who's just gone thru this, this is in no way the type of thing you give to folks about to be layed off. Google shows me that the same list appeared on the web page of the San Franciso Credit Counseling Center, which seems like a more receptive audience for the tips as presented - folks who are actively & desparately looking for ways to cut back, not ones who just got hit in the head by a 2x4 by their union and their employer.
I can see how this happened though - some poor guy (who has probably been sacked & in real need of the list right now) was trying to be helpful, found a list somewhere out in cyberspace and did a quick cut and paste. But didn't read it. Nor did the person putting together the packet at the consulting firm. Nor did anyone at Northwest.
Or at least let's hope that nobody read it before it was distributed, because if anyone did and actually thought this was a good idea, they should be the ones getting layed off.
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