--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "J. van Baardwijk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Actually, many corporations are kept up and running by those >unskilled,
>minimum wage people. If it weren't for low-ranking >employees like
>receptionists, cleaning staff and cafeteria staff, >not much would be done
>anymore.
Well, I'm independent now, but when I worked for a corporation, that number
was way down. For 1000 employees, there were about 3-4 full time
receptionists. Cleaning was done at night, so I can't really speak to that.
But, there weren't that many people cleaning a big office building. As
for cafeteria workers, we had some, but only about 20% of the folks ate
there. Most went out or brown bagged it like I did.
>If the entire management doesn't do any work at all for a week, the company
>stills keeps running. But what do you think will happen >if for a whole
>week the production personnel goes on strike
You'd outsource the production to a small machine shop, or a small
electronics assembly shop. Push comes to shove, the engineers would build
the tools themselves.
>or your office building doesn't get cleaned for a week,
you'd outsource to another cleaning company. There are scores of those
companies waiting for business. Or, if push came to shove, you'd get your
kids to come in after school for an hour to clean up.
>or there is nobody around to make coffee for a week?
Huh? Y'all don't make your own coffee at work? The typical rule in the US
is whoever took the last cup makes the next pot.
>Exactly: everything in the organization comes to a grinding halt...
Why? No hard feelings, but I think the European organizations that I've
seen have a lot more overhead than their US counterparts. So far the loss
of jobs due to efficiency has been overcome in the US by the increase of
jobs due to the added wealth that results from increased productivity.
People who have increased productivity of others with their work clearly
create a lot of value. An example of that in my industry is a friend of
mine who co-invented the technology to steer oil wells. (This was referred
to in an Atlantic Monthly article). As a result of this, and a couple of
other innovations, the finding cost per barrel of oil was approximately cut
in half.
This cost can be seen as waste. By cutting waste, he added a tremendous
amount of value.
BTW, my experience is that Europe has more managers/worker than the US.
Dan M.
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