...While many workers have gone without salary increases for two to three years and are now doing the job of one to two people, they see and hear less from senior leadership about the vision for the future and how they see the company evolving and reshaping themselves...Because people are being asked to do too much, that results in their doing a poorer job, and consequently workers don’t feel good about their performance, also causing discontent and hurting morale...Unfortunately, it isn't easy finding a new job, according to a recent survey by Rutgers University. The title of the survey gives a clue about its grim contents: The Shattered American Dream: Unemployed Workers Lose Ground, Hope, and Faith in their Futures.
Some lowlights from the survey, thanks to Kerry Hannon at Forbes:
- 58% of unemployed people are pessimistic about finding a job soon.
- 61% feel they'll be stuck in their current financial situation, while 35% think they'll make it back to where they were before.
- 54% said the recession caused a family member to stress out.
- 61% say the lousy economy has had a major impact on their family.
...it's the consequence of the decisions by leading banks and corporations to stop investing in the job-creating enterprises that were the key to broadly shared prosperity. Our multinational companies still invest, of course - just not at home. A study by the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Council Foundation found that the share of the profits of U.S.-based multinationals that came from their foreign affiliates had increased from 17 percent in 1977 and 27 percent in 1994 to 48.6 percent in 2006.Meyerson points out that U.S. multinationals can -- and do -- slash workforces and wages here while still making money. He has a solution for this institutional problem that TeamsterNation can embrace:
for starters, the seating of public and worker representatives on corporate boards.
