Mitchell’s Musings 12-20-10 I have been thinking about take-aways of late. We are all aware of the decline in such components of the employment contract as employer-provided health care. The chart below - which focuses on my home state of California - is one of many of its type that readers are likely to have seen. While there is an evident cyclical effect on the chart of the Great Recession (and of the prior housing boom), the secular erosion is also apparent. =========== Job-Based Health Insurance Coverage for the Non-Elderly: U.S. and California
Source: http://www.chcf.org/~/media/Files/PDF/C/PDF%20CaliforniaUninsured2010.pdf =========== But while take-aways from the employment contract such as health insurance and defined-benefit pensions are the targets of various periodic surveys, there are other workplace ―perks‖ that are often unmeasured. Two items from the Los Angeles Times and one from the Sacramento Bee caught my eye last week. 1
First, there was the case of the incredible shrinking cubicle: Office walls are closing in on corporate workers (excerpts) Businesses used to provide 500 to 700 square feet of work space per employee, but the average is down to 200 square feet — and shrinking. The recession and an emphasis on teamwork accelerated the trend, and younger staffers prefer less. Roger Vincent, Dec. 15, 2010 The walls are closing in on white-collar workers — their office environments are shrinking, propelled by new technology, a changing corporate culture and the age-old imperative to save a buck. Although personal workstations won't disappear, the sprawling warrens of cubicles and private offices that have defined the workplace for the last few decades are heading the way of Rolodexes and typewriters. The shift is of tectonic proportions, experts on the workplace say. In the 1970s, American corporations typically thought they needed 500 to 700 square feet per employee to build an effective office. Today's average is a little more than 200 square feet per person, and the space allocation could hit a mere 50 square feet by 2015, said Peter Miscovich, who studies workplace trends as a managing director at brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle… Companies have been gradually dialing back on office size and grandness for years, but the recession accelerated the trend as sobered owners let go of their old floor plans and tried new ways to speed productivity, attract talent and cut costs. There are other factors at play in the push to make work spaces smaller and more communal. Many companies are emphasizing teamwork, and younger employees accustomed to working anywhere but at a desk are turning up their noses at the hierarchical formality of traditional offices. …Office tenants who renew their leases these days often cut their space total 10% to 30%, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. The term "restacking" has emerged to describe the common process of making offices more efficient by changing the floor layout, reducing paper file storage space and introducing smaller, uniform workstations. You can find the full article is at latimes.com/business/la-fi-office-space20101215,0,965694.story Note that article is at pains to attribute at least some of the take-away of office space to the alleged desires of young workers and the need for teamwork. But I was reminded of a line from Edgar Allen Poe’s ―The Pit and the Pendulum‖: I shrank back -- but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward. At length for my seared and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm 2
floor of the prison. Maybe that analogy came to me because I am old and tend to work alone. You must admit, however, that even if the Poe reference is too severe, there is at least material for a Dilbert cartoon in the above article. On the same page, there appeared a second article of note, although it was dated a day earlier: Office holiday parties are fewer and less elaborate (excerpts) Shan Li, December 14, 2010 Southern California developer Robert F. Maguire remembers fondly the holiday bashes that once rocked corporate Los Angeles. "We had some wonderful parties that were very exuberant." There was live music and drinks aplenty, in addition to memorable presentations of hors d'oeuvres, entrees and pastries rarely seen at holiday parties today, recalled the man who built the U.S. Bank tower in downtown Los Angeles, the tallest office building in the West. ‌It's not that Los Angeles has forgotten how to party. Corporate events for employees, clients, and favored customers are in full swing across the Southland. But in recent years, changing social values and a difficult economy have toned down many corporate holiday celebrations in Southern California and across the nation. Instead, there are more office potlucks, client lunches, charity projects, and holiday snacks with less alcohol flowing. ‌Nationwide, 79% of companies will throw some kind of holiday event this year, a 2% drop from last year and down 16% from 2004, executive search firm Amrop Battalia Winston said. It is the lowest percentage in the 22 years the company has conducted the survey. "People have gone through a survival mode, and we still have one of the largest unemployment figures in our lifetimes," said Dale Winston, the company's chief executive. "Companies are starting to do better, but many who aren't holding parties just don't think it's appropriate or don't want to spend the money." ‌
But the article ends on a high note: John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., said it's just a matter of time before corporate holiday soirees make a comeback. "The corporate holiday party scene is going to vary greatly across the country and in different industries," he said. "But, overall, we are probably still a year or more away from a widespread return to the types of festivities held prior to the recession." Full article: latimes.com/business/la-fi-holiday-office-parties-20101215,0,1034840.story
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One wonders whether Mr. Challenger’s optimism is warranted. Can we also expect cubicles to expand in the recovery? If so, why is there all that talk about a ―new normal‖ that has become so fashionable? As in the case of the shrinking cubicle, the article attributes the decline of the party to ―changing social values.‖ Employees, I suppose that phrase means, no longer like elaborate parties. But if that is so, why would we expect a comeback? My hunch is that as in the case of health insurance, there is both a cyclical decline and a secular decline at work and that both are more a matter of cost than anything else. The third and final news item that caught my eye last week comes from the Sacramento Bee. The background to that item was a shopping mall in the Sacramento, California area that burned down after a fire was set by a disturbed individual who barricaded himself inside. Folks wondered why the sprinkler system did not activate and an investigation followed. I’ll provide an excerpt of the article below and then pose a simple question. Galleria worker shut off water, report says Ed Fletcher and Sam Stanton, Dec. 17, 2010 Fifteen minutes after the blaze inside the Westfield Galleria broke out in October, a mall maintenance worker turned off the sprinkler system for more than an hour, apparently because he believed police wanted the system shut down, a new report by Roseville officials concludes. The report on the Oct. 21 blaze states that the sprinklers were turned off for 71 minutes in the area of the fire, and that the worker later told investigators he did it because a UPS driver told him police wanted the system turned off. Roseville police and fire officials said Thursday that no such order came from them, leaving the possibility that the devastating blaze blew out of control simply because of a misunderstanding by well-intentioned bystanders. …The incident began shortly after 10 a.m., when authorities say (the arsonist) barricaded himself inside the GameStop and set off an incendiary device. By 10:23 a.m., at least one sprinkler head in the area had activated, and by 10:29 the first emergency units arrived… At 10:38 a.m., a "Westfield employee shuts sprinkler valve off, he says at direction of law enforcement," the timeline states. "Neither police nor fire are aware of shut-off." In follow-up interviews, authorities said, the employee indicated a UPS driver had told him police wanted the sprinklers shut off. Investigators interviewed both workers and said "neither the UPS worker nor the maintenance worker could recall or identify who initiated the request." The report does not identify either worker. Roseville Police Capt. Stefan Moore, tactical commander that day, said the two workers were among the first people on the scene 4
before the SWAT team arrived and were trying to be helpful. ―They were trying to be good Samaritans," Moore said. "They were trying to do what they thought was right in a very chaotic situation." Seventy-one minutes elapsed before fire officials realized the entire system in the east side of the mall had been turned off – something they discovered, according to the report, when they overheard the maintenance worker talking about what he had done… Full article at http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/17/3264489/galleria-worker-shut-offwater.html The focus of the article and the investigation in reports is whether the police and fire authorities had acted properly. It did not focus on why the mall employee – who the article surprisingly characterizes as a ―bystander‖ - had no idea about what to do in case of a fire or other emergency. Presumably, even rudimentary worker training would suggest that turning off the sprinklers in the face of a fire was not a Good Thing to do. Presumably, only an employee without a clue as to what should be done would decide to follow the advice of a passing UPS driver. So what do we learn from this third item? It is one thing to take away office parties and cubicle space for employees. There are larger social issues surrounding such takeaways about declining workplace conditions. But such erosions are not immediately life threatening. However, emergency training does not fall into the category of a nice workplace perk that can be taken away to save expenses. Nothing in the article suggests that the question occurred to anyone as to why an employee of a mall would not have had adequate emergency training. Since no one thought to ask that question, I will pose it here. Holiday greetings, readers.
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