Those brilliant company execs have come up with some innovative solutions to trifling issues that come up from time to time—things like actually having the money to pay employee salaries. One hot trend: just stop paying them. They might still come in to work anyway.
Employees forced to take mandatory furloughs are still heading into the office every day—because they can’t keep up with their work otherwise, and they want to make every effort possible to avoid getting laid off. British Airways just asked its staffers to work without pay for a month.
As for the people still collecting salaries after witnessing the cubicles around them empty out due to layoffs, well, employees with paychecks are working longer and harder than ever. No surprise, right? They have to do the jobs of the people who just got canned, in addition to their regular responsibilities.
Maybe the trend of work sharing—several employees working part-time, with less pay and fewer hours, but without massive layoffs—isn’t so bad. Check out stories here and here.