‘The Downside to Downsizing’

Back in the good old days, when General Motors was the undisputed king of the automotive business, AT&T had a monopoly on communications and Xerox was the only photocopy company in the world, people had what amounted to lifetime job security. The expectation of permanent job security was considered a social contract between the company and the employee. So long as you didn’t burn the factory down, you had what amounted to a job for life. The primary stakeholders of organizations were the workers. Management increased pay and benefits to keep workers away from the threat of unionization and the strategy worked for a long time.