Work & Lack Thereof

Sorry that I haven't been posting more lately. Work has been extraordinarily busy and the weather in London is getting nicer. Between the 2, writing stuff here just hasn't been a priority.

One of the things that's occupied me is watching a co-worker get a severance package. This person is doing meaningful work, at a high level of performance and their skills aren't easily replaceable. Nevertheless, their job is being moved overseas. From a business level, I understand the rationale. Labour costs overseas are considerably cheaper and senior management become convinced that a worker is a worker (ie - skills can be re-learned and/or are transferable). Time will tell about that latter point in my friend's case.

I know that my friend is not alone. Many Canadians in many sectors of the economy are being hit with this reality. I personally think that this time, it's a little different for the following reasons:

• With most manufacturing and I/T moving offshore, where are the replacement jobs supposed to come from? In the 1930's Depression, when the economy improved, workers went back to manufacturing jobs that essentially existed before. That won't be the case this time.
• Jobs are being moved offshore because of cheaper labour costs. Unless we also export unions, does this signal the decline and/or end of much of our middle class?
• It appears that in some cases, the "bad economy" is being used as a rationale, but it's not the case for all companies. Many are still profitable, but (IMO) are using the downturn as an excuse to accelerate their outsourcing of jobs.
• Workers are not given the option to reduce their wages to compare with off shore people. They're just told that the jobs are going.
• Is it not a conflict of interest for senior management to be the decision makers that export basic workers' jobs but not their own? Surely, one could find some senior executive talent willing to work for less than what some North American corporate heads make?
• With corporations basically being autonimous (ie - not a citizen of any country), is there anything that our governments could/should be doing to retain these jobs? Should companies be offered tax incentives to retain their work force?

Tell me what you think. Have you had friends, family members or have you lost your job in the past year? Did the work move off shore, to the US or did the company just close? Does anyone have a good news story about finding new work at any sort of wage or skill level on par with what they were doing in their former jobs?

Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay in posting.