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Any good business man will tell you a sure fire way to conserve capital is to reduce your spending.
Employee's are always the first line to go. I agree that your idea sounds good but when we know you can have 1 person do the work that 2 or 3 usually do then it makes the decision that much easier.
Only problem is then a lot of stuff falls by the wayside.
the problem with this is that usually 1 guy doesn't want to do 3 peoples jobs. they'll tolerate the workload for a little while but it only a matter of time before they feel they're being slaved and unappreciated and they eventually quit.
i worked at a dotcom back in the days and thats pretty much what happened to me. they cut 2 people trying to save money which left me doing 3 peoples jobs for 1 persons pay. i did it for a little while expecting to get some sort of raise but i got nothing. they were paying the 2 people $100K combined. if they gave me a $25K raise they would've still save $75K and i would've been happy to stay but they weren't trying to give me shit. they expected me to work all 3 jobs on top of working on weekends since it was a huge workload. it didn't help being on salary since i was making the same money even if i work 60+ hours a week. unless you're desperate for work, you're going to quit, i quit.
A lot of the guys in this situation aren't exactly doing $100,000 worth of work though. Warehouse jobs and stuff like that are super easy if you can do physical labor, and I'm guessing here there were people who were taking a lot of downtime. Also, the skate industry is unique in this aspect -- people will quit at a dotcom because no one actually wants to work at EvilFaceless Incorporated. On the other hand, for the average dropout wannabe pro skater, working in a warehouse in California beside your favorite pros for forty hours a week is like a dream job. It's not much of a living for any of us, but they see it as being around skateboarding while still having enough money to actually eat once in a while.
I do feel bad for the migrant Mexican slaves Jamie Thomas "employed" and then kicked to the curb though. I don't think they get unemployment over there, and it's not like these people were making enough to actually be able to save anything.That is one good thing about Barack Obama being elected. This "free trade" bullshit is a huge scam, and when the rest of the world is under economic socialism, and wages there are artificially low, there is nothing "capitalist" about sending jobs over there. Unfair competition is just being placed on the American worker -- stifling wages and hurting consumer spending.
Once again, Newton spewing about shit he knows nothing about.
-First off, we all know you don't feel bad for anyone, you've proved you're a selfish prick time and time again.
-Secondly, factories always fluctuate the number of employees they have due to the amount of work there is to be done. This is true anywhere in the world. Truth is, in Mexico the people are protected by the laws better than in most countries, while they don't have unemployment, all employees that are laid off have to be paid 90 days severance plus they're entitled to a certain amount of money for how long they've worked at the company.
-Lastly, regarding Nafta, minimum wage is dictated by the cost of living in a place, so there's nothing artificially low unless you're running illegal labor/not abiding by the laws.
...and at the at this point in the game, it's not a question of US vs. Mexico, it's a question of Mexico vs. China. It's very difficult to pay for overhead, market and promote a brand at the level needed to stay strong and give boards to shops for prices they need to make a margin getting 'all' of your boards made in the US. It basically only works for small brands with low overhead and minimal marketing commitments. Once you reach a certain size, the importance of maintaining a certain profit margin to keep the cash flow going in order to sustain business is crucial. It's called profit, but that doesn't mean you're taking bags of money home, it means you have money to pay your bills on time and give terms to the people that need it.
...you obviously need some life experience, but I'll give you that you're an expert in 'idealism'!
Topic: skate industry downsizing... podium blackbox etc.. (Read 11666 times)