The media is abuzz with stories about employers cutting full-time workers back to part time because they believe health care reform will be prohibitively expensive.
If you are in that situation, there is a silver lining.
The time your boss has freed up for you is time you can use to find other ways to make money.
Now, you may say you are just a working stiff, and you need all the hours your boss can give you – not to mention the insurance benefits he might be taking away.
You also might think that this is temporary. Your boss will see what a penny-wise and pound-foolish decision it was to cut your hours back, and the extra hours you would give him will more than cover what it’s costing him in salary and benefits.
After all, if he didn’t need you for 40 or more hours, he wouldn’t have hired you for 40 or more hours. He would not have been that stupid, would he?
It’s tough to call this decision by some employers a knee-jerk reaction. It’s been talked about for a long time. But it may indeed be short-sighted. Your boss may just complicate his life more than he realizes if he does this.
For example: he’s probably going to have to hire another part-timer to cover the hours he is taking away from you. That part-timer may not be as good at the work as you are, or have as much experience. He’s going to have to allow for time for the new guy to get up to speed. How many sales, or how much productivity, will he lose by that? How much is that worth to him, in the overall scheme of things?
Retired syndicated radio talk-show host Neal Boortz talked about this Monday, Aug. 19, 2013, while filling in for his replacement, Herman Cain. He says that temporary employment agencies might find an opportunity in this tumult. Temporary workers would be great at filling in the gaps left by cutting back full-timers to part time. Well, bosses, good luck with that!
Good, long-term employees have a value that you can’t measure entirely with salary and benefits. Some years ago, there was an adage among employers: in the first three years of an employee’s tenure, that employee was giving you more than you were paying in total compensation. After three years, as benefits and salary increase, the employee was suddenly costing you more than he was giving you back in labor.
But the intangibles that a good, long-term employee gives his employer can be overlooked. For example: the person who’s been in the job for a few years can usually do it with minimal direction and supervision, presuming he is a good, loyal worker. He might even see things in the job that the boss doesn’t , and create efficiences he doesn’t even realize.
Yes, employers, this is real money thatmay or may not be obvious – until that person is gone for a time. So why would bosses do this to those folks who have made them prosperous?
As for the employee, the unintended gift your boss may be giving you is time to check out other ways to make money. There are many, but to look at one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. It’s been said that some people work full time at their jobs, and part time on their fortunes. If you now are working “part time” at your job, here’s your chance to gain time to work on your fortune.
One day, your boss may be surprised that the good person he’s had for years is leaving “to pursue other (more prosperous) opportunities.” All this, because of pre-hyped fear of insurance costs. Let’s hope the temporary worker he hires works out. Good luck with that, bosses!
Peter