Open Letter to Union Members

Dear Union Member:

I am sorry you have lost your job. I feel for those of you who are no longer able to support your family, retain your home, and are wondering what to do next.

I also have advice for you: leave your union.

My first job was as a financial analyst for a major bank. I was disappointed with my pay yet happy to have employment. I remember stumbling across a union-supported website that allowed me to compare my wages with those of my CEO. I dutifully entered the requested information and the site produced the ominous report:

You would have to work 140 years at your current pay to earn what your CEO earns in just one year!

I think that message was supposed to incite me to anger, ill-will against my "overpaid" company leader, and organize my fellow worker into a union. Luckily, I have a logical mind, a drive to succeed, and ambitious dreams. I crunched the numbers. I calculated not my pay against CEO pay, but the pay of the ENTIRE COMPANY against CEO pay. I calculated what I was "giving up" in compensation to the CEO so that I could have a job that paid my bills. Allow me to illustrate using GM.

• The CEO of General Motors earns $1.7 million per year. "More than anyone needs", many would say.
• GM employs - directly - 252,000.
• This means that the CEO of GM earns about $6 for every person he employs.

I'm going to guess the average salary of the 252,000 employees $30,000. Are you telling me that you would not be willing to give someone .02% of your annual pay so that you can have a job?

Think about that the next time your union rep tries to highlight the "outrageousness" of executive pay.

A few other questions you'll want to answer:

1) How much do the union lawyers get paid vs. how much you get paid?
2) If unions protect jobs, why don't you have one?
3) Why are non-union auto-companies in the south still thriving?
4) Knowing that a CEO doesn't own a company, shareholders do, and that unions and the 401k plans of "normal" Americans are the primary shareholders of large corporations, who are you really fighting against? You're trying to squeeze money from the "owner" - that happens to be you!
5) Calculate how much you have spent in union dues over your career. Ignoring the complexities of compound interest for a moment, multiply that number by 5. That's what it would be worth had you invested it. Has the union provided that much value to you?
6) Did you know that for every 1 week you spend on strike without pay, you need at least 2% increase in total compensation or you have come out behind? Prolonged strikes ALWAYS benefit the company - unions want to 'win', companies want 'profit'.

Here are better ways to spend your union dues:

1) Education. Learn something that allows you to succeed in the new economy - like, how to assemble a computer.
2) Your Health. Join a gym and use it
3) Invest it.

One last note specially targeted to those unions in the public sector - teachers, police, fire, etc. You realize that you are striking against the government, right? Who are you mad at? There is no "evil owner". If there is money, it is PUBLICLY DISCLOSED by LAW. In order to pay you more, the government needs to raise taxes. That means YOU PAY MORE. Quit asking the government to raise my taxes.

I could write a book on how bad unions are for the economy, and how much worse they are for union members, but I don't have the time or the interest for such an endeavor - and, the last time I was a known union foe, I received death threats. Unions have become communist mobs. They started out as organizations to protect workers from exploitation, and they were successful in achieving necessary, government supported worker protections. Now, they have devolved into the local thug wanting protection money from the workers.

It's time we sided with merit instead of tenure, and paid people for contributions and productivity, not some pre-negotiated rate. Nothing hinders American prosperity and productivity like a union.

Ups and Downs

Ying and yang. Up and down. The more things change, the more they stay the same. No deep insights here. Words of the ages apply. My week was no different.

Last weekend, I arranged a guys golf weekend to Sedona. We had a great time drinking Friday night, playing Spades, passing out at 2 AM, and getting up for an 8 AM breakfast and 11 AM tee time. Of course, we all golfed the worst game in a decade, but we had fun doing it. The one notable event was on the 11th fairway. I had just hit my second shot and returned to the cart when my golf partner engaged the break and took off at a dead run. I had no idea what he was doing, until I heard it. My vision isn't great to begin with, and I'm wearing dark sunglasses, so I never saw it. But, I sure heard it. Swarm of bees. Hundreds of them, flew right over, around, and through our cart. The other members of our foursome were staring at us like we had lost our minds.

On Sunday, I sat in utter amazement as the Arizona Cardinals advanced to the Superbowl. I immediately checked the weather in Hell to confirm it hadn't frozen over. Black president, a plane lands safely in the Hudson river, and the Arizona Cardinals go to the Superbowl. I'm expecting 100 degree days in Alaska and snowstorms in Phoenix in July.

Monday was a holiday for me - MLK. Unfortunately, I had to spend part of my holiday taking my dog to the vet to be put down. She had lost complete control of her hind quarters. Any time she tried to turn the corner, her back end would fall to the floor as if it was not attached to her body. It wasn't good. She was a great dog. The other two spent a few hours looking for her before finally giving up.

Tuesday, after a weekend of begging from my daughter, we went to the Coyotes game. I didn't realize until I tried to buy tickets that they were facing the Red Wings. We went to the game the first time the Red Wings were in town and saw one of the best hockey games I've ever seen. Back and forth all game ending in a tie. Overtime also finishes in a tie, and they went to a shoot-out. Coyotes drew first blood, and get up 2-1...then never score again and end up losing the shoot-out 3-2. This time, they left no doubt. Once again, back and forth. First period finishes 1-1. Second period finishes 3-3. Coyotes never scored on a power play, Red Wings only scored on power plays. In the third period, the Coyotes ripped it open ending the game with a 6-3 victory. I was hoarse for two days.

By the end of the week, I was exhausted.

Working for the man....

I've never considered myself anti-establishment. I will admit, at times, to having been envious of those who were. Willingly, and satisfyingly, living in poverty all in the name of personal freedom and liberty is a lifestyle I definitely could not do. Despite my closet admiration, I never understood their disdain, or even hatred, of government, corporations, and capitalism; until now.

The events of the last few weeks - my rough day, further delays in finalizing a relocation date - caused me to recognize some validity in the concerns of the antiestablishmentarianists. Before I elaborate, recognize that I do not believe this scenario, but lack of sleep, external stressors, and information voids can awaken the paranoid in all of us.

Consider two scenarios:

1) Senior management of a major organization decides they don't like one of their mid-level managers. Conniving and cunning, they decide to make life difficult for this manager. They realize that the manager's skills are marketable, so simply firing the person would have minimal impact. Instead, they decide to make an offer that is impossible to refuse, but one that causes major upheaval in the manager's life - relocation. The manager makes significant plans with his family, spends a large amount of money in preparation, and sells off many of his belongings in preparation. Then, a few days before the relocation, they inform the manager that, instead of relocating, he's being demoted. A few weeks after that, it's a pay cut. Then, finally, amid other "layoffs", they let the manager go.

2) Mid-level manager decides she is fed up with how a company is treating her. She is on key projects, spending considerable effort to get them completed at considerable personal sacrifice. She receives no recognition, no additional compensation. She could leave the company at a key point in her projects, but they would just find someone - or, more likely, a group of people - to pick up where she left off and they'd probably only lose a week or so against the timeline. She also recognizes that the market is tough. So, she decides to obtain her compensation and get revenge on the company another way - she sells off important, but not proprietary information: customer lists, pricing structures, but doesn't give away any patented or company secrets. When the market picks up, she leaves and joins the company she sold the information to, and brings several clients with her.


Now, you are an attorney. You have time to take on one case, and you only get paid if you win. The fee for winning is the same, regardless of which case you take on. Do you represent the manager in Scenario 1, or the company in Scenario 2?

The laws of our country make winning a case against the employer in Scenario 1 nearly impossible, even with substantial evidence. Scenario 2, on the other hand, if you have just one example of unauthorized selling of company information, that manager goes to jail. Period.

I believe that you don't find companies that condone the behavior in Scenario 1 but that you will find hundreds if not thousands of employees who would do Scenario 2 for the right price. I'm also quite concerned with the fact that the law leaves the manager in Scenario 1 with little recourse. Maybe the antiestablishmentarianists are on to something.

December - out with the cold....

A long time ago, I declared I would not return to the Midwest during the winter. If I remember correctly, the impetus for this decision was three consecutive years of leaving the warmth of Arizona for a chilly Thanksgiving in Chicago or Michigan and, inevitably, returning with the flu, a cold, or pneumonia.

This year, thinking I would be leaving for Indonesia on January 6, I decided to forgo this stance and travel back to Michigan for the weekend before Christmas to spend time with family I would not likely see again for quite some time. Big mistake.

Seeing family was fine; the weather, not so much. We arrived on a Thursday, to 6 inches of fresh snow. Friday brought six more inches. Saturday was not nearly as bad, with just four inches of fresh snow. By Sunday morning, we were looking forward to our flight later in the afternoon to return to the relative warmth of Arizona. Six more inches and blizzard conditions resulted in a cancelled flight. That's when the fun began.

When you travel to Grand Rapids, you have limited options when attempting to leave by air. The city is small, the airport is smaller, and the only direct flights are to airline hubs - Newark, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Chicago, Memphis and Houston. All but two are in cold weather climes. And, on Sunday, all flights were cancelled, and nothing available until Tuesday.

The weather report for Monday was 2 degrees with 4-6 inches of snow. What was more interesting, and concerning, was the forecast for the rest of the week: Tuesday, 4-6 inches expected, Wednesday, another 4 inches, Thursday "significant" snow expected. If 4-6 inches isn't significant, I don't want to know what is.

On Tuesday, we arrived at the airport and, luckily, our flight was not cancelled. I looked at the departure board and all flights to Chicago were cancelled due to weather. I looked at the radar image of the weather and saw why - a HUGE snow storm over Illinois...headed our way. Our flight was available and showing as "on time".

We checked in, checked our bags (paying the $30 fee for first bags), and went to our gate. As our flight got closer, the time got delayed by an hour. Then the snow began. Then the flight is delayed another hour. And then they close the runways to clear them of snow. Then the flight is delayed another hour. I'm beginning to think the storm from Chicago will hit us before we get a chance to leave.

Continental gives us meal certificates to use in the airport, hoping to placate us. Then they realize we will all miss our connecting flights, so they attempt to rebook us. Doesn't work, no available flights out of Houston the next day on Continental. Eventually, they book us on a separate airline.

We finally leave Grand Rapids after a three hour delay and arrive in Houston. Once there, the airline staff arranges a hotel for us. I ask where I can get my luggage. They inform me it has been checked through to Phoenix, so I'll have to pick it up there. I explain that I have to brush my teeth, change my clothes, etc now that I am staying overnight. They give me more meal vouchers and tell me that if I want my bags, I'll have to go to the baggage assistance counter and have them send someone to retrieve. Oh, and the baggage assistance in the terminal I'm in has gone home for the evening, so I'll have to go to a different terminal.

45 minutes later, I'm at a new terminal, giving baggage assistance information about my bags. They inform me it will require roughly 45 minutes to retrieve them. So, we wait. After we get our bags (luckily, we did get ALL of them), I call the hotel and ask for their shuttle. They tell me it will be about 20 minutes. We wait at the pickup point for 20 minutes, no shuttle. 25 minutes - no shuttle. I call them again. Van was full, so they have to make a return trip. 45 minutes after we arrive, the van finally picks us up - and a number of other passengers - and takes us to the hotel.

At the hotel, I'm the last one in line, and wait another 45 minutes to get our room key. By the time we finally got to bed, it was after 3 AM. Luckily, I had the foresight to book a noon departure out of Houston, instead of an 8 AM flight. I schedule a wake up call for 9 AM, and then set the alarm in the room for 8:30 AM.

At 8:30, alarm goes off. Wake-up call never happens. We arrive at the airport, check in, pay ANOTHER $30 to check our bags and make our way to security. We end up begin the group "randomly" selected for further screening, and spend the next 20 minutes having our bags and our persons searched. We finally get to the gates and have $60 in airport vouchers to use for breakfast.

We buy our breakfast - $20, and I start trying to sell the remaining $40 in certificates for $.50 on the dollar. 80% of the people I ask - who are standing in line for food - decide they would rather pay full price than save themselves half by buying from me. The 20% who did take advantage of my offer ended up buying the remaining $40, one of them was nice enough to do it for full price, so I now had $30 cash.

Flight out of Houston was on time. All in all, we were supposed to arrive in Phoenix on Sunday night, and we finally arrived on Wed. afternoon. We missed two Christmas parties, our anniversary dinner, and I missed 2 days of work.

I don't think I need another reminder why I don't want to travel to the Midwest in the winter.

Rough Day - Dec 16

Sometimes, events in life must play out in full before I can comment on them. So, please forgive the delay in the timing of this post.

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For you “bottom line” people, here was my day:

1) AM - I’m not moving to Jakarta in January.
2) Afternoon – Laid someone off
3) PM – not on the org chart

For you details people:

AM

My day started with a phone call from my boss – I hadn’t even left the house. “There is a problem with your relocation”, he started. “Because we let go 75 nationals last week, the Indonesia government is not happy with the idea of adding an expat (foreigner) head count. We need to delay your relocation until April. How does that impact you?”

Not wanting to go into the details of how I have to now unravel the intricate relocation quilt I weaved – father-in-law moving into my “soon to be vacant” house on 12/31; mother-in-law flying down to catch our flight to Indonesia (which I have already paid for); re-enrolling Gabi in swimming, Gymboree, etc; cancelling the movers; explaining to everyone why I’m still around in February after I’ve already had a “going away” party; delisting my cars for sale; resigned from my position on the board for the Mesa Parks and Recreation; resigned as President of AZ Chapter of the Society for Information Management; etc…. I simply responded: “Other than determining how much I can get for my non-refundable ticket for my mother-in-law, no impact.” Total financial impact to me is about $352, so not too big (I believe they will reimburse this).

Afternoon

Shortly after I arrived at work, I got another call informing me that the layoffs I was supposed to do Wed AM I now needed to do this afternoon. I had a final demo scheduled with our CIO in the afternoon. Instead of attending and leading the demo, I had to attend via phone because immediately after the meeting I had to inform my staff of their new status.

This is the third time in my career I’ve had to go through the process of identifying and informing staff of a layoff, and it doesn’t get any easier with practice. Terminations are easy – I think. You are getting rid of someone who deserves it. Layoffs are tough. How do you answer “why me” when you have a team of people who all perform? “Experience and business value” – our company line to that question – just seems so impersonal…though I delivered it with as much sincerity as I could muster.

The recession in 2001 hit a lot of people I knew in technology. For the most part, though, they shouldn’t have been in technology, so it was really a good house-cleaning for our industry. This time, that isn’t the case. Good people are out of work. Hopefully, the contact I referred one of my “former” employees to (you know who you are….) can set him up with a job. This individual’s son started his first semester at Yale this fall. It would be a shame for him to have to enroll elsewhere (no pressure!).

PM

After that meeting – and performing all my “termination” tasks: collecting badges, turning off computer access, etc – I went downtown to discuss with my boss the impact of not moving until April. I have already transitioned my current responsibilities to the new “temporary” manager. I’m also not on the org chart we’re sharing with everyone tomorrow (when the rest of the layoffs complete). So where is my home? The answer is, I’m an “uber-project manager”, available to assist our new Director (current one transitioned out) and the “temporary” manager until I depart. Precarious position, at best, but I understand the circumstances, and I just need to focus on what the company needs me to do until I can successfully relocate.


This was one of those days where I end up asking myself: “Why do I work for a company I don’t own?”

Then I remember the answer: “Because you haven’t finished anything you’ve started to write, you haven’t marketed your game, you haven’t bought any of the businesses you considered buying, you’re not independently wealthy, you need the money, and you haven’t yet found anyone to pay you for your good looks and sardonic wit.”

On the plus side – I like who I work for, who I work with (mostly), and what I do. Sometimes, that’s enough.