Please, someone awake me from my nightmare! I just read that some companies are responding to the recession by asking employees to take unpaid holidays. What? Yes, it's true.
Of course, it's not likely that your well-paid, well-fed bosses will be asked to take a pay cut from $500,000 per to a paltry $475,000 for the greater good of the company. Nah, I d say that isn't likely to happen anytime soon.
This isn't the first time I've heard of such antics from employers. However, when I've seen it done in Europe, it was often in restaurants or small companies. Often, in those cases, the holidays were "forced", but they were still paid.
What's remarkable to me is this: it's no secret that the economy is crap and things are slowing down. But why do we so often expect the lowest earners to make the first sacrifices?
If we're going to hawk the idea that we're a team – we win as a team, we lose as a team – than perhaps we should ask a little more of those who are earning more. After all, most of us don't blame those who are supposed to guide our companies through feast and famine.
Taking unpaid time off is not only bad for individual people, it's not good for the economy. After all, we're supposed to spend to keep things flowing.
Thank you for posting this. As I'm writing, I'm on my first of 10 mandatory unpaid days off. Of course, I am in the automotive industry at a privately owned supplier. I never thought I'd hear of this occurring at Dell. I don't feel any better knowing that my company is the only one resorting to this... Hang in there, folks!