After the post-9/11 recession, US airlines announced wholesale layoffs. There was just one exception - Southwest - which has never had an involuntary layoff in its almost 40-year history. Today, Southwest is the largest US airline, with market-cap bigger than all its domestic competitors combined. The key question Southwest brings up - if people are your most important assets, why would you ever get rid of them?

Southwest's attitude is unusual. As the economy emerges from recession, Americans continue to suffer through layoffs, cutbacks, RIFs (reductions-in-force), pink-slips and other names disguised to seem like normal business in tough times.

In spite of proclamations that the recession is over, the US economy continues to lose jobs. There are currently 15 million unemployed Americans; plus when you count those who have given up looking for jobs and others who work only part time to make ends meet, that's another 10 million "underemployed".

These days, layoffs have become all too common. Companies cut workers even when profitable. Some industries recognize that change is coming, and instead of developing growth strategies to adapt, the bean-counter mentality takes over and cutbacks occur to "protect the bottom line". Sometimes, this even drives a company's stock price higher.

At Honeywell, pay-freezes are the rule, and employees are slaves to spread-sheets while jobs are steadily outsourced to India and China. Meanwhile, CEO Dave Cote was on the list of top-paid CEOs in 2008. In 2009, Cote's incentive plan was suspended, and bonuses for top executives were canceled. But still, poor "Diamond Dave" (as Honeywellers call him) pulled in only $13.2M, compared with $30.8M in 2008.

Read the Honeywell and Rockwell weblogs. Frankly, some of the moans and groans make me very uncomfortable. But I continue to publish because it provides a voice for many who have no other way to protest.

Downsizing and pay-freezes are most often big mistakes, with big impacts on morale and productivity because anxiety ("Will I be next?") infects the remaining workers.

Read my article on the perils of downsizing (weblinks below). The more you examine this commonly accepted business tactic, the more wrong it seems to be. Simply put, it "sucks".

Newsweek - Lay Off the Layoffs
ISA InTech Jim Pinto Channel Chat - Invest in People
Do's and Don'ts of Downsizing for Employers