William H. Magill on Thu, 17 Oct 2002 13:03:43 -0400


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Re: [PLUG] OT: Linux Business Forum


On Wednesday, October 16, 2002, at 10:08 AM, Fred K Ollinger wrote:
I agree that employees are costly - but I still believe that managers
want to avoid layoffs as much as possible. It's bad for moral, it's HARD
to hire people back - because getting open reqs for poistions is tough -
and bringing in new people is always an unknown variable that can throw
a wrench in an otherwise smoothly running machine.

I don't think that employees are as costly as they look on paper. By employee, I mean good employee. Do-nothing employees are worthless, I agree.

This is exactly the kind of topic that a Linux Business Forum can discuss at length.


In reality, with the exception of a few "capital intensive" industries, personnel costs are the dominant cost of doing business. The "intangible" benefit of a good employee vs a bad employee is rarely ever quantified in a rational manner. (Think about all of the "performance reviews" you have ever had. Employee reviews are rarely ever "negative.")

The reason that getting permission from the bean counters to hire a new person is difficult is because it is even more difficult to get rid of that person "if they don't work out." The real costs of an employee are actually 50-75% more than the simple salary costs once benefit packages including perks -- like "free coffee" let alone Fooseball tables -- are included.

The first question asked of a manager by a bean counter when confronted by the "this employee is worth more than that employee" statement is ... "Then why do they both have the same "positive" review in their file? If that employee is not good, you should have gotten rid of them before this."

The view of personnel issues from opposite sides of the desk is dramatically different -- "enlightened mangement" or not. It's one reason why very good technical people rarely make the transition to very good managers.

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com

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