Us FOCs have been through umpteen restructures. It’s the natural order of things. Globalisation and technology will see it accelerate, if anything.
Rail against it or adapt. If you’re a leftie, blame every bastard under the sun and promise you’ll borrow sufficient billions to spend our way out of it.
To get really disillusioned, though, visit the Brexit thread where Bluemoon’s finest pessimists spin their shite. (I learnt to avoid the place a year ago.)
Appreciate the thoughts from a fellow SB. ;-)
This is not my first restructure, either, but a unique one as they go for reasons I can’t talk about. I’ve managed to survive all so far, thankfully, but that run with end eventually.
Among the business trends I was referring to in my original post were technological changes (if you think you’ve seen economic disruption from automation, for instance, just wait), so agree there. But globalisation is an age old force, nothing novel or unforeseen there, so I wouldn’t count it among the accelerants. I was speaking about acceleration of workforce displacement/underutilisation, though, which will be a major challenge.
We’re in for a ride, and those that adapt best are of course nearly always those that manage to survive (though, not necessarily thrive, depending on the circumstances)—it’s been my guiding principle all of my life, as I am sure it has been yours. I don’t advocate “railing against it”, as that’s just shouting at the wind. I do think working to mitigate some of the abhorrent effects of the disruption is not only needed but a duty for those that are in a position to do so, though.
I shared the bit about the restructure as it is recent, instructive, and indicative of what is to become even more frequent than in the past, so in line with my “doom” prognosis. I also wanted to highlight how these events may be more destructive than in recent times.
I know several very skilled, extremely competent, highly educated older people who were let go in the last restructure in 2017 that still have not been able to find work making anything near their previous salaries (which has been devestating to them and their families). They have tried to set themselves up to be adaptive, but there are other forces creating barriers to entry for them that they cannot adapt to (namely that recruitment skews heavily toward young people and there are actually fewer positions available after the various restructurings as entire jobsets are being replaced with automated systems). Some might argue this is the same as the industrial revolution but there is a lot of evidence it is actually very different from a job/value creation standpoint. Many of those that were let go now work on short-term contracts (another practice that is going to become more common in every industry, regardless of the role/work) with little to no benefits; in many ways it is a practice intended to exploit their desperation. And those working in the USA (wish I had never accepted the position that took me here, but that’s different discussion) just hope they do not get injured or sick as that would likely mean financial ruin.
As far as the Brexit thread is concerned, I try to stay clear of it these days; there’s too much nonsense and anger from both sides to have a decent, evidence-based discussion.
All of that said, I think I also posted because I’ve been in a bit of a bad place as of late, and yesterday’s events took me further down, so wanted to get some of it out for discussion. BM is (save the Politics subforum) usually a decent place to do that, as we’re all generally upstanding blues looking to support each other.