The outrageously high rewards that corporate executives can pocket give these executives, in turn, an incentive to behave outrageously, to do whatever it takes – from downsizing workforces to cutting pensions – to hike their share price and stuff their own pockets.
Along with downsizing its workforce, HarperCollins has announced that its Collins division will be closing.
That policy had raised concerns about companies downsizing their workforce or cutting workers' hours in order to dodge the new mandate.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra has announced that the company will be shuttering some plants and downsizing the workforce accordingly.
Automation and higher worker productivity, too, have played a major role in downsizing its workforce over the last few decades.
It has also continued to downsize its workforce, which now stands at about 900, down from a peak of roughly 1,400.
Career ladders died out during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when over 85% of Fortune 1000 American companies downsized their white-collar workforce.* Downsizing has only escalated from there, however in the 80s and 90s the lost jobs were not in manufacturing but white-collar jobs, including management jobs.
But layoffs of the magnitude the governor is considering are likely to spur a major counterattack from unions that represent state workers, who have in recent years agreed to concessions that would reduce long-term pension costs but sharply resisted calls by Mr. Cuomo's predecessor, David A. Paterson, to agree to downsizing the state workforce or other cost-saving measures.
Yet, institutions like Tufts continue to downsize the maintenance workforce, while simultaneously expanding the space in need of cleaning as part of a national, university campus construction boom.
Although the president's order to downsize the federal workforce through attrition has some exceptions, it is unclear exactly how it will be interpreted and applied.
