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Re: golden handcuffs

Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 22:12:36 EDT
From: Jaharnish2 at aol_com
Subject: golden handcuffs.

Mr. Harnish wrote:

<<this is about my interest in moving back to Cincinnati.
if not Cincinnati, then another place where i will be
rewarded for my abilities, my passions.
i wonder in sending this if any of you
share the same professional field as i do...
the creatively cerebral world of CAD design and engineering.
...

i have learned much about the automotive engineering
industry, and that has also come at great cost to myself.
a cost that i hadn't expected to pay, but i'm glad i've paid it.>>

I'm sorry I cannot offer any suggestions about Cincinnati or about CAD
design or engineering.  Nor an opportunity for one who does.

However, I understand the need to find a place that recognizes the very core
of you rather than the space you fill, the hard asset that your knowledge
and intelligence provides.  It is an admirable desire, and a truly necessary
one for continuing to grow.  Even if you have learned from your experience
and your "scar tissue" will provide you with the necessary toughness to see
you through life's difficulties, growth from negative experiences eventually
must come to an end.  The deep roots that you develop from such an
experience help you to survive anything, but to flourish, you must provide
yourself with some sunlight.

<<i have better understood David's cries of Psalms from this.>>

David provides solace many times over, thank goodness.


<<...meanwhile, we're being told beautiful lies of security.>>

What else can a company do?  But no, it's not acceptable and it's not
enough.



<<                  ~ a topic i'd love to see discussed ~
what of this ruthlessness?
what of this merciless termination with no good reason or
even warning, but only the desire to streamline, to make lean?

Theodore Roosevelt's sister Corinne said:
"Nothing is as difficult as to achieve results in this world
if one is filled full of great tolerance and the milk of human
kindness. The person who achieves must generally be a
one-ideaed individual, concentrated entirely on that one idea,
and ruthless in his aspect toward other men and other ideas."

i don't believe in that model. i believe there's a better way.>>

There is a better way.  It's called trust and respect.  Based on love of
humankind.  And believe it or not, companies do exist that provide such
comfort, such security for their employees.  Certainly not to the extent
that individuals can provide it to one another, but when the majority of the
people that work for a company exhibit both trust of and respect for one
another, that company can provide a kind of home for its employees.  Rare,
perhaps, but being the naive optimist that I am, I believe that we can find
pockets of such peace everywhere we go.  And when it absolutely runs out
somewhere, it is time, as Ysobelle so succinctly put it, to "Get Out Now."

<<my father and i have debated over the subject of loyalty
to one's employer plenty enough. i see none, i have little.
i'd love to gain some, and it would be hard-earned for my employer.

(it would also be well rewarded by myself were it earned.)

fifty or even twenty years ago, there was a great deal
of loyalty between employer and employee from what i reckon,
but i see that no longer.
disloyalty has fed mistrust has fed...(?)>>

Yes, you hit on it there.  Employers that do not inspire loyalty---or that
do not demonstrate it to their employees---do not deserve it from their
employees.  Employees cannot give it for no reason, and no company
automatically deserves loyalty without earning it.

I have been lucky, or blessed if you prefer, to have worked for two
companies that inspired such loyalty in me.  Each company provided very well
for its employees, offering recognition and benefits, obviously worked to
keep its employees satisfied with their professional lives and to allow time
for their personal lives.  Although I may not stay even with the second of
these companies for my entire career, I would gladly return to work at
either company in an instant, were the circumstances appropriate, and I
would recommend to anyone I know (looking for what the company does, of
course) to work for either.


<<where are we going from here? what's the end goal?
several holding companies of accountants and bankers
that make decisions based solely on charted projections?
do we really want the system of countless individual
entities to be strangle-tied into one or several bundles?>>

Fortunately, none of these things can happen unless we, the people of the
world, allow them to happen.  Yes, many people don't care and don't work to
change the course of our nation, our world, but the more of us who try to
make a difference, the bigger a difference we can make.  (How's that for
trite?!)


<<another take ~
what comfort do we have in this nation solely from this
method of doing business? are we to assume that we'd
enjoy the lifestyle we do were it not for the above trends?

i do wonder at how our lives would be were it not for this.
to think we'd be better off may be an exercise of naivete'.>>

That depends on what you mean by "the lifestyle we do."  Money?  Perhaps
you're right.  Very likely we could not have all the things we have without
living this way.  Freedom?  We'd have more if we lived differently.
Executive positions?  I believe that climbing the corporate ladder without
sacrificing our ideals is possible, but only in a place that fosters
teamwork incorporated into individual growth.  Peace of mind?  Our lives as
a whole determine that for us, and basic dissatisfaction with any piece of
our lives---such as how we work, who we spend time with---can prevent peace
of mind.


<<i just know that i don't care to be the one with blood on my hands.>>

Basically, that's a good attitude.  But the statement implies that someone
else must.  I don't think so.  I believe that businesses and people can
survive and even prosper without any bloodshed.



<<if this is coming across as panicked,
i have not chosen my words well.
i'm just filled with disdain and unsettled a great deal
at what is happening to the workforce of today.>>

It did not, and your disdain appears to me to be justified based on your
experiences.


<<i'll be fine, i know that my value is tremendous.
furthermore, i know that i am greatly loved.
it's that "birds of the air, lilies of the field" thing...>>

Maintain that trust and most certainly you will.


<<the golden handcuffs are binding.>>

Only you can make that choice.

<<it's hard to say presently how far i'd go to keep them,
so i'm just saying "by the grace of God, i'll be fulfilled.">>

Good luck.  I believe you---just remember your priorities.  For another
irreverent quote:  "If money's all you want, then that's what you'll get."
If you want more, balance the value...


Best wishes,
Stephanie