When I was in New York last week, I had lunch with U.S. News & World Report writer Rick Newman — Rick is also the co-author of Firefight: The Battle to Save the Pentagon. We had a rambling conversation, with about half of it focusing more or less on Good Boss, Bad Boss, and the other half on a collection of diverse topics. I warned Rick several times "I have already told you %125 of what I know," but he smiled and pushed on, and said he would show me what he wrote when it was all over. I made a few minor comments, but Rick really did a nice job of making my rather incoherent and disorganized comments make some sense in the posted interview. Here is one of the topics I talked about with Rick that, to be honest, is opinion based rather than research based — although the layoff and unemployment numbers fit the plot line:
What are the biggest changes affecting the workplace right now? The biggest change these days is probably the nature of the basic employment contract.
Most companies don't have pensions anymore, you can take your 401(k)
with you, there's no incentive to stay loyal. Layoffs are everywhere.
HP never had layoffs until about 10 years ago. Even Google has had
layoffs.
Sometimes layoffs are an economic necessity. But there used to be a
psychological contract: It used to be, we'll take care of you. Now it's
more like: Take care of yourself and maybe we'll help if we're in a
good mood. People criticize young people for having no loyalty and for
going wherever they want. But why do they owe anybody loyalty? They and
their parents have been treated like shit.
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