Sara Lee lays off 300 North American workers

Sara Lee Corp. laid off roughly 300 staffers throughout its North American operations this week, including an undisclosed number at its Downers Grove headquarters.

[AvgGuy42]

Typical myopic response. In the short run expenses are lowered through reduction in payroll. Idiots on Wall Street rejoice over maintaining margins in a tough economy. Remaining workers are required to do more with less. Morale suffers, quality nosedives. Sales slip. More heads roll. Oh yeah, this is the typical myopic American business model for slashing your way to prosperity. How enlightened.

[BCD]

Cut the highest paid workers and get people that want to work and make profit! Good job Sara Lee.
It is about time!

[Saluki Rod]

I feel bad for anyone losing their job. However, if companies would just cut their bottom 5% of the stack-ranked employees annually, several of these mass layoffs could be avoided.

[Danny Al Fayed]

guess we know some people who dont like Sara Lee now!

[sowhat]

AvgGuy42 wrote:

Typical myopic response....Morale suffers, quality nosedives. Sales slip.

I don't recall that the story said that the layoffs were on the production line where they bake, and make salami and sausage.

[Concerned]

In fact, the 100 local jobs are all in the headquarters. There is no production line there so, presumably, the morale of the production workers wouldn't suffer, quality won't drop, and sales will continue at a lower cost.

[Bandhar Bush]

"Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee!!!"

[illegal]

us illegals work harder than you anyhows so it would be right to hire us AND pay us welfare

[AvgGuy42]

Saluki Rod wrote:

I feel bad for anyone losing their job. However, if companies would just cut their bottom 5% of the stack-ranked employees annually, several of these mass layoffs could be avoided.

So how is cutting 5% annually not a mass layoff in and of itself? And stack ranking is a tried and true method of how not to improve efficiency or morale. Just look at the number of high profile companies that have tried it and subsequently abandoned it, Ford and GM among them. Funny how so many people think that layoffs are such a great idea, until it hits home of course.

[avg joe]

I'll bet the CEO still gets a big bonus!!

[Saluki Rod]

AvgGuy42 wrote:

<quoted text>
So how is cutting 5% annually not a mass layoff in and of itself? And stack ranking is a tried and true method of how not to improve efficiency or morale. Just look at the number of high profile companies that have tried it and subsequently abandoned it, Ford and GM among them. Funny how so many people think that layoffs are such a great idea, until it hits home of course.

You wouldn't happen to be a former, emphasis on former, GE employee would you?
Read my post again..consider the mathematical implications.

[Obama Nanny State]

AvgGuy42 wrote:

Typical myopic response. In the short run expenses are lowered through reduction in payroll. Idiots on Wall Street rejoice over maintaining margins in a tough economy. Remaining workers are required to do more with less.

How about they just keep everyone on board and run the thing straight into the ground?

Geez. Corporate America Wall Streeters, by now you would think that they would have learned that status quo is good and they don't have to worry about silly and trivial things like profit margins, bankruptcy and shareholder rights.

[Obama Nanny State]

avg joe wrote:

I'll bet the CEO still gets a big bonus!!

Yes because running a lean, efficient operation is usually construed as a good thing to the people who OWN the company (called shareholders - they bear risk to GIVE the company their $ to make more).

Geez. Capitalism is so mean, why aren't we commusocialists?

FYI, companies are not started for their employees, they are started to make money for their owners.

[Nel Macreen]

avg joe wrote:

I'll bet the CEO still gets a big bonus!!

Just think, if no one was laid off, and the company was run into bankruptcy, all those retirees with pensions and 401k plans filled full of company stock would be up the creek too. Times are rough for sure but you can't bring down the businesses to save a few jobs. Shareholders expect profit or they stop investing.

[Redneck Billy Bob]

Well the cakes are getting smaller all the time so mebbe they don need som nay people to bake em

[messochwen teme]

after being under the thumb of a ceo who manage to lose nearly 62 billion dollars in just 4 short years, then being takwen over by a lady from pepsi who brought sara lee into a management theory that was proven nearly 40 years ago to be a complete fiasco, and which has brought every company who ever bought into it either to their knees or complete bankruptcy, is it really any wonder that sara lee is having, shall we say, difficulties? btw the way sra lee stock values has plummeted continuously over the past 8 years to a point where they are very near the bottom line value before being removed from the stock exchange.

[AvgGuy42]

Interesting comments, one and all. I am no socialist. I respect everyone who takes the "lean and mean" position. I recognize that it is the Wall Street investor who owns the company, but I also believe that far too often job cuts are used as a knee-jerk quick fix to bolster the bottom line. I admire guys like Jim Sinegal of Costco, who always remember that there is a human factor in any business decision. Guys who would defy the quick fix in favor of improving effficiencies in other ways. Hey, I'm a capitalist. I own a small business. I am also a middle manager in a global consumer products company with over 40,000 employees worldwide. One with a 75 year history of never turning to mass layoffs to improve performance. I have also had the experience of being "downsized" (no Rod, I have never had the pleasure of working for GE). I can tell you employees at all levels work that much harder when they know their senior management is looking out for them.

Simply put, my position is you can't cut your way to prosperity. When I read about massive layoffs year after year at some companies, it makes me wonder; when you finally get to zero employees do you win?

[Saluki Rod]

AvgGuy42, I applaud your clarification. My company has just laid off 4K+ employees across the country, and the process is gut-wrenching, both for those who were cut, and for those of us who weren't.

The sad reality is that this economy doesn't allow people to feel secure in any position, which is a sad situation to see the american corporate culture in.

[just another day]

Well the cakes are getting smaller all the time so mebbe they don need som nay people to bake em
they just don't make cakes, they own over 140 different companies.

[just another day]

Well the cakes are getting smaller all the time so mebbe they don need som nay people to bake em

they don't just make cakes, they have a shoe care division, household, etc. They own over 140 different companies.