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Show Thursday. March 21. 1W6 TIIK DAILY HKRAl I). I'rovo, Company no longer a happy family Editor's note: This is the second installment of a seven-pa- tered and about 16 percent of gers. The five precepts were THE ART OF THE LAYOFF 74.000 jobs will cease to exist. inscribed right on the cup. The There is an actual Merger series. Although the new entity w ill bear cups are stacked at coffee stations Office. Not a physical room per se, the more illustrious Chase name. throughout Chase. The idea was, but a "virtual office" of some 20 By N.R. KLEINFELD Chemical is clearly in command. every time you had coffee you people from the two banks. Chem1 996 N.Y. Times News Service ical's chief administrative officer, Indeed, many profoundly drank the values, too. It was an icy, depressed Chase employees interThe expression "employer of a man named Joseph Sponholz. NEW YORK pastel day and in the harried pret the deal as a sellout by senior choice" was converted into a presides ov er its w orkings. It is this hours the sidewalks were management, the death of the comspread of programs, including entity that concerns itself with the clotted with workers parading into pany they cherished. Thomas G. stock ("Vision shares") for every monumental arcana of stitching One Chase Manhattan Plaza, a Labrecque, Chase's chief execuemployee, flexible work arrangetogether the two huge companies, sterile tower of ponderous cooltive, has already been demoted to ments and, most notably. Career and for this it relies on a tool it ness just off Broadway and hard by president of the new entity, w hich Vision. Begun in 1994 as the calls MOM. Wall Street. On the ground floor of will be led by Walter V. Shipley, embodiment of the new covenant MOM is the Merger Overv iew between employer and employee. the Chase banking headquarters Chemical's chief executive. Model, computer software that Career Vision offers One joke going around Chase: sprawls a bustling branch that keeps track of ev erything that has tests, career forums, training been done and has to be done. On Question: What do you call a employees reverently know as the in skills like teamwork, and a netMother Branch. a minute-b- y Chase worker who is downsized? minute basis, it w reswork of workers who will let you tles with an equation that is supA bushy-browe- d Answer: Chemical waste. man with a trail them to learn about another posed to produce $1.5 billion in NO MORE SANTA brisk manner who works at the area. CLAUS' savinus over three years and elimiMother Branch looked around The mechanical intention With of this "We buildnate f:.000 people. that efficiency, approach, uneasily. approach ing with trepidation," he said. "It the w oman leaned across her desk. much in vogue among corporaSponholz, as MOM's daddy, all seems like a quiz show. Who gathered up some tions, was to gave a sense of the routine, which shift the burden he likened to preparing for will win? Who will lose? Do you loan papers and them. of managing a First "mapping" teams w ith repreknow the missing letters of the arranged career onto the sentatives from both banks compuzzle so you can come back to She drew a deep breath and slowly play again next week?" employee. The piled facts about the Chase and It was not the place he wanted it let it out. company's role Chemical departments that could "It's not the would be to be used to plan their integration. to be or had known it to be. Within offer workers These were supposed to be stark a matter of weeks, the tower will bank I started to work for." she tools to expand facts, with no subjective judgno longer be a headquarters of anysaid, insisting on thing, because Chase Manhattan THE DOWNSIZING their skills so ments, the whole point being to get Chemical and Chase people doing anonymity they remained Corp. is in the final throes of being the OF AMERICA swallowed by Chemical Banking that most fretful valued employ things together without animosity. Other integration teams, then, ees, whether at employees Corp. The combination will be demanded for their insights about Chase or elsew here. Anyone at any did the harder stuff: Managers presided over from Chemical's their unraveling situations. "They level could use the tools, but none were put in place, starting from the Park Avenue headquarters and w ill used to call it Mother Chase. They were mandatory. top and moving down the pyramid, Now there are Career Developand business integration plans constitute the country's largest don't call it that anymore. Everyment Centers, like the one at Two were hashed out. Some of the most bank, handling $1 trillion a day. thing is about insecurity, not makChase Manhattan Plaza. There are important early decisions had to do And as these things go, it w ill also ing enough." the Chase rank and counselors at the ready. There is a with technology. Branches, for mean 12,000 fewer people will Throughout have jobs. It has become a numb-ingl- y file, there is a vitriol more often makeshift career library, actually instance, cannot be merged until it is decided which g familiar economic drama in associated with the Internal Revjust two stout bookcases containrecent years, but the script still has enue Service. Its seeds were planting tapes. Chase training manuals system to use. In the early going. Chemical career nostrums: shock when it comes to one's own ed before the merger, during the and self-hel- p the seemed With to have the winning hand. forces the were task "Swim judging Dolphins," years company. Chemical. "Knock'em Dead." "Anger at Deposits All of this was testing the man's necessity of jobs and systems: Work." and "Don't Shoot Yourself Statements and ATMs: Chemical. faith. A sidled past him, were going out the door. Check processing: Chemical. It Like many others, the loan in the Foot." a small bouncy woman with glisAll of this, though, means a was decided that the trading floor tening cheeks. She gave a cordial woman did not think the layoffs at would be consolidated at Chemiwave and called. "Talking to your Chase would come out fairly. In chameleon-lik- e change for workher words, "It's not only how well ers, one particularly tough for cal's headquarters. The final count, headhunter?" have you done your job, but how longtime employees having trouhowever, was 16 groups of Chem"I wish," the man said. it. ical systems. 15 Chase and 10 the of well ble did said. "Welcome she to accepting "Well," you your political piece." justness Chase could not yet say whether it joint. She was not political. That woranother deflating day at Downsize ried her. "Chase has always been was succeeding. Manhattan Bank." Judging the human beings this is themselves was trickier. Chase Like many organizations. Chase my identity," she said. "Chase is Clearly, though, approach is a workplace in transition, a compart of my name. But I'm not having a hard time. A lot of executives call eliminated people affable-soundin- g pany in which old certainties about going to roll over and die because employees regard it as "happy "saves." an work no longer apply. The change I don't work for the new Chase. talk" intended to mask the fact that notion resonant of the achieveYet if this keeps up, w ho's going to their jobs are being pillaged. ments of relief pitchers. In this is carrying a heavy price. A huge it denotes savings to the comA workers number bother? work of to has taken case, root goodly anymore. Why go insecurity complex are openly bitter about what they pany, thus positioning laid-oin the bank's employees. The derapeoWhy get out of bed?" cinated workers feel forlorn, if not ple as a corporate asset. Chase Wrestling with their gloom, see as a cartoon substitute for secuoutright hostile. They are baffled workers have begun to seize on rity and decent benefits. And with hopes to get a third of the saves about where their loyalties should customs in the most improbable their jobs in doubt, they felt from layoffs, a third from retirelie and where their employer's places. One couple, shaken by the uncomfortable spending days ments and a third from attrition. To weed out the people, manChase tremors, recently concluded away from their duties trying to loyalty lies. Anxiety stalks the corthat America might have to psychoanalyze themselves. As one agers have received a ridors. titled Chase vice president expressed it, booklet To be sure, quite a number of become like India, where extended "Companywide "Career Vision is like the Energiz-e- r Guiding Principles For Selection." workers also express optimism, an families rather than corporations It stipulates criteria like employee clickety-clacking Rabbit optimism sometimes a front for minister to people. "You feel like you want to work throush Bosnia." blinkered denial that they themperformance, "value to the organization" and "skills important in a A SURVIVOR'S CYNICISM selves are at risk. Some younger in Japan or Sweden." the loan In effect, he has become a workers think an employer does woman said. "A place where they merger or rapidly changing envinot owe them much beyond a desk, take care of their people and their white-collfactory w orker. Punch ronment." It frowns on seeking a an ID card and a paycheck. They crippled. It's like a lost era here. him in. Watch him run when the balance of people from the two banks "for the sake of balancing are ready and willing to play a It's like growing up. There's no evening bell sounds. He is alone." business at a Claus." Santa more Certain unclear rules. with analyst game On the delicate matter of diverA NEW VALUE SYSTEM Chase, 10 years with the company. irrepressibly assured individuals of Chase, in the lingo of human He has been through smaller sity. Chase management says it all ages see something hygienic resources, no longer wants to be a downsizings in 1987 and 1991. knows that the Federal Equal about downsizing, a boldly effisloth and cient way to cleanse parent to its employees. It wants to One of his groups was entirely Employment Opportunity Comeradicated. The sepulchral air was mission sees a red flag if the makemake it more certain thai the be their best friend. In step with other large compaso long as up of a downsized department getting to him. patient will survive he deviates more than 3 percent to 4 will Even has Chase a nies. untouched. remain probably though paterreplaced they nalistic organization that guaranFAREWELL. MOTHER percent from the original demokeep his job. he has been transteed a job and a raise and a pension formed. One disturbing truism of graphics. Hence Chase's wish is CHASE that the layoffs not breach that barwith one that tries to assist the the new workplace is that downsizit called Mother Employees rier. Chase. It began in 1799 as the employee by sharpening skills that ing has an insidious effect on surbut too. enhance career will vivors, success, lend Managers readily admit, howManhattan Company, not to "The merger has eliminated for ever, that there is no distilling dollars but to supply treated water will not guarantee anything. it simply disIn the me a certain motivation and all human emotion from such an to a New York swept by yellow because this boy was a imprecise process, and that politics like continued it picWith its fever. perks employee spare capital, monewell as a as sacrosanct comnics, In 1955. the bank. a opened g plan "We've all pany merged with Chase National tary benefit, a We will obey bank which the to Rockefeller the usually conBank, thebank of will and is tributed 15 percent of a worker's family. Jobs used to be as secure as civsalary. That benefit was replaced Since a -5 merger, job for il service posts. But it has been by plans that tended to be less clear for at least a decade that lucrative and involved a lower me." banks are a capsizing industry. contribution from Chase. And the company began contracting out They have been buying and mergguards, messengers, many jobs ing with each other, first sporadities figure in the he said. "1 went into and long-tercheck processing. cally and now in a veritable stamw anted to go diselse one no that areas Not the in equation. employee surprisingly, pede, hemorrhaging jobs The selection booklet offers into. I did a lot of confrontation process. Just four years ago. content escalated, and Chase concluded it had to do something. To a and tried my best to make it conscripts for Chemical itself united with Manusample with certain extent, it felt the solution structive and change things. I meetings facturers Hanover. shoot for the moon and I settle for employees. ("Today is your last The stewards of these banks lay in a coffee cup. somedid Chase 1993. In a little rock. I'm not doing that day with the company. Please turn efficiencies to for need the early invoke over your files on the ABC project stave off rival banks as well as thing many companies were doing anymore. We've all become solretailers, car makers and brokerage at the time: It engaged everyone in diers. We will obey whatever is to (name of employee) and spend a said and will not challenge. Since few minutes bringing him up to houses that offer their own credit a mass exercise to compose a statejob for speed.") It suggests that the messervices. ment of values and goals. It called the merger, it's just a cards and banking-typ- e me." Vision Chase the effort Quest. sage be terse and unapologetic, They speak of the speed of technoin another departA would make this and the whole nasty matter be manager and the employthought importance logical change ment said the mood had changed in wrapped up within 5 to 10 minutes. of holding the fickle attentions of ees feel warmer about the compaWall Street. Rarely do they address ny and their role in it. The result other ways too: "People are a lot Precautions: Be sure to restrict was a set of five not unobvious less amenable to being absorbed access to confidential files and the extent to which consolidations customer into the work culture. It's pay me. computer systems; if strong reacresult from lost revenues due to "criteria for w inning" don't play with me. Don't give me tions are anticipated, alert security for each other, teamfocus, respect inferior management. an employee picnic. They're acting and medical. and work, professionalism. quality Burdened with sluggish perfordecidlike independent contractors. And rather nebulous Other tips: avoid terminating The its been has goal Chase mance. cutting new leitmotif was to they're more suspicious of mana on their birthday (alas, as on ed from the since people payroll agement. Employees are less w illa high of 47.480 in 1986 to the curmanagers confessed they have not appeal to the bank's three conthe worker, cusbothered to research birthdays) and ing to participate in employee surrent 33.500. Pressure on the bank stituencies and to veys, even though they're anonylook for signs of anxiety among intensified when Michael F. Price, tomer and shareholder mous. They feel they are coded in employees i.e., withdrawal, a mutual fund manager, became become the employer, provider unshaven appearance, weird Chase's biggest shareholder last and investment of choice. "We some way." Recently, the business analyst habits. An employee relations April and admonished Chase to spread that vision statement all counselor gave an example from elevate its stock price. Four over the world." said John Farrcll. has rooted for his deeper satisfacanother downsizing company: For months later. Chase sold itself to the head of human resources for tions elsewhere. His hobby is phosettled he on a has Manso Chase. old and new the both weeks, a man sat in his office with deal tography, Chemical for $10 billion, a local a arts center establish to the beseeched their lights turned off, clutching a consummated be charges: to agers quest by expected "Live the values" and "Link to the in his New Jersey town. He now newspaper. March 31. At the moment, most layoffs are vision." sees that as his driv ing focus. Within three years, manageBurned out of corporate life. He still in the indefinable future, Farrcll scooped up a Styrofoam ment predicts. 100 of the two though some winkers have gotten banks' 480 branches will be shut- - coffee cup and tw irled it in his fin- - is 43. rt mid-morni- nt -- y. "Cutthroat business people want quality and production, and if you can't give them what they want, they'll find someone who can." JOHN MANZANARES 36, formerly a mason, now a sanitation worker, Fresno, Calif. ' If it Economic insecurity and fear of losing a job gnaw at workers still on the job. Poll respondents see the bonds of loyalty between employees and companies and the spirit of friendly cooperation among employees being eroded by anxiety and pressure to work ALL ar mid-1980- s, risk-takin- g, profit-sharin- become soldiers. not challenge. whatever said it's the just 9-to- Chase business analyst risk-taker- ." mid-1980- s, . HARD-HI- BY A .. Get more training ...Work longer hours Less loyal 75o 2 More loyal ...Take fewer vacation days Are workers more loyal or less loyal to their employers today than they were 10 years ago? Q Less loyal 64o .Accept smaller benefits More loyal B c0 Compared to the way things used to be, do most working people these days cooperate more, or compete more, with their coworkers? r'j.i D I ..Challenge the boss less often 3 if Compete more 7 1 Cooperate more ,,11 ...Accept a smaller wage f Compared to the way things used to be, do you think the mood at many workplaces today has become more angry or more friendly? Q 53 J o Friendlier mood at work B.o In the past three years, have you or someone in your household often had to work more hours than usual? HOUSEHOLDS WITH SOMEONE OR LOOKING FOR A JOB WORKING D - Angrier mood at work Had to work more hours 54 For most executives, saying flatly that the company is firing hundreds of people can be unpalatable. So euphemisms have proliferated to the point where there are nearly as many for firing as there are for death, according to one dictionary of euphemisms and slang. Here are some examples. Instead of "fired" excessed bumped decruited involuntarily separated de-hir- Based on telephone interviews with 1 ,265 adults conducted Dec. 3 to 6 nationwide. Respondents who did not answer, did not know, or thought there had been no change are included in totals but not labeled separately. "Those already hard-hi- t by a layott" means people who said they or someone in their households had been laid oft at least once in the last 5 years, and that the layoffs had caused crises in their lives. deselected destaffed discontinued disemployed dislocated displaced downsized i i i Instead of "layoffs": degrowing executive i "There's a lot of competition for my job, a lot of backstabbing. You try to look past it and not to worry about it, but you can see it. It's always going to be there. And if there's a threat, even a perceived threat, it's going to bring it to a head." JOHN ZARSKY 49, financial analyst, Austin, Tex. N.Y. Times News Service notice. The severance packages are sweet as these corporate arrangements go: three weeks' salary for each year of service. 26 extra weeks of pay for those who have 25 years with the company, plus a S2.500 grant that can be applied to any sort of training, including ballroom dancing. Throughout Chase, there is a clear expectation that it w ill experience carnage heavier than at Chemical. Time will tell. For the first 300 management positions that were named, Chemical said the score was 53 percent Chemical, 47 percent Chase. But among the positions of power, the breakin Chemidown is closer to 60-4- 0 cal's favor. Sponholz said he was cognizant of the current jitters and sw arm of rumors. "Wo learned last time that employees get very anxious," he said. "So being as open and forthright as wo can be is very important. We're doing a lot of communications." GALLOWS HUMOR The new s comes right to every employee's desk, in a neat. multi- - nonretained nonrenewed severed surplussed transitioned vocationally relocated redundancy elimination refocusing of th i culling skill mix job separation m "non-selecte- . . THOSE ALREADY RESPONDENTS WHO ARE WORKING OR WANT TO BE Are companies more loyal or less loyal to their employees today than they were 10 years ago? H Kl I'yj-- might increase your chances of keeping a job, would you ff 26-pa- tali Worried that their grip on their jobs is loosening, most workers say they are willing to make concessions to employers if it would help save their jobs. They are especially willing to get more training and work longer hours; a cut in pay or benefits would go down harder. check-clearin- er L payroll adjust- - resource reallocation i ment reorganization personnel surplus reduction reduction in force or "rif" (verb form: "I was riffed") right-sizin- g work force imbalance Some terms border on the Chase Manhattan calls the people it lays off "saves," as in savings to the bank. AT&T's "force management program" is meant to reduce an "imbalance of skills"; people almost certain to lose their jobs are "at risk" or "unassigned." At the opposite extreme is a blunt expression attributed to the Canadian newspaper magnate Conrad Black: His executives know just what he means by "drowning the kittens." Orwellian. Sources Ranson s Dictionary o Other Doubietalk "Doublespeak Enhancement to Terminal Lmng. Executive Recruiter News N Y Euphemisms and From Revenue ' by Wiiham Lutf Times News Servce page newsletter entitled Merger Update. They can have it on paper and by The missives appear roughly every oilier week. Some contain an opening message signed "Walter" for Walter Shipley and "Tom" for Tom Labrecque. There are also town meetings. There is also a hot line for merger questions. There are voice-mamessages from senior officers befoie key announcements. There are seminars. One subject: "What is a merger?" To many workers, however, the material is saccharine and and it never tells them 24-ho- il |