During the employment of the baby-boomer generation, employment benefited both employee and employer. Employees devoted themselves to their employer's business; employers rewarded employee service with family-friendly compensation.
During the 1990,s there was a culture revolution that took place in the workforce called “downsizing”. Due to massive layoffs and the abolishment of positions that became vacant, employees who were able to keep their jobs were now required to work harder and put in more hours in fear of becoming unemployed themselves. Deadlines still had to be met and profits had to be made. The work for some of these baby-boomers became their personal lives and the job became their families. As baby-boomers age, employers continue to discharge those most tenured. It is difficult to appreciate the inherent value of an employee’s devotion and loyalty with escalating salaries and a constrained employee performance metric. One of the fastest ways to improve the bottom line is to cut the payroll.
After all the hard work and late hours, came “at will employment”. Dismissals, layoffs and firing of employees create another employment culture. Many employers have “at will employment”; which means that employees without a written employment contract can be fired for any cause; good, bad or no cause with a few exceptions.
Due to the loss of traditional employment protections employers and the government should be required to provide a smoother transition for those employees who are forced to leave their place of employment. It should be a system that demands answers, explanations, and affords departing employees some sense of future direction, instead of being just kicked on the street for no reason. Economists estimate that there's a price paid--leaving more workers unemployed for a longer time. The human capital and collective expertise of a knowledgeable workforce of the baby-boomer generation should not be squandered on an otherwise well-intentioned free market place.
The ‘X”generation have learned from their parents that there are limited benefits to devotion and loyalty to a company. We did not teach them about employment retention. They are achieving advancements and opportunities vested in multiple organizations instead of one. As well as, having personal lives, outside of work at no cost.
