The Blame Game

When I hear all the debates going on about the bailout of the automotive industry I can't help but wonder if we are sometimes missing a piece of the puzzle as to why our American manufacturers are struggling. We may be able to point our fingers at the executives making huge salaries and even bigger bonuses for letting a company be run into the ground. We may also point to the unions that have tied the hands of American industry, giving our foreign competitors an unfair advantage. The same goes for the EPA for mandating costly environmental restraints that also give our foreign competitors the edge. We may be able to point to the general managers, plant managers, supervisors, and foremen for their failure to operate their facilities efficiently and effectively. But let me state that each and every worker on those lines should look within themselves and ask if they contributed to the mess that their companies are in. What did they do to help or hinder the productivity and profitability of the company that is paying their wages and benefits? Do they come to work each day and give a respectable day's work for the pay they receive? Do they look at the big picture and realize that a company's success begins with them, that they are the front line and if they fail to do their jobs it creates a domino effect that will eventually bring the company to its knees?

In the late seventies my husband and I worked for a manufacturer, on their production line, and saw firsthand what the working class can do to a company. There were over 800 employees working three shifts seven days a week producing mostly plastic soda bottles. I would venture to guess that at least half of these employees spent a good portion of their day conspiring to avoid working. They assumed the jobs would always be there and it didn't matter. They would only work at the slowest pace necessary to meet minimum production goals. In their minds, if they were able to produce more and did so regularly, that would become the new standard and then they couldn't slack off when they wanted to. I saw people come to work high on drugs or under the influence of alcohol. These were the people who operated machinery capable of killing their coworkers. Others thought it was perfectly acceptable to steal from the company that put food on their tables and clothes on their backs. Tools, supplies, plastic resin, anything they thought they could use outside the plant would somehow slip away, past the security gate and into their cars. Didn't matter, the "company" had deep pockets, right? I saw them trash the break rooms that were provided for them, it was someone else's problem to clean it up. I saw them cheat on the maintenance reports, documenting work that was never done on the machinery. So what if the equipment failed and the lines were shut down. They thought it was great to get an extra break, it didn't matter if the company missed a production deadline. Why should they worry about it? Why? Let me tell you why. That company I worked for was losing money and losing contracts for failure to deliver on time. They had to lay off most of their employees and cut benefits to those who remained. The union couldn't really save those people then because it was either take that or shut the doors permanently. With a 9% unemployment rate in the small town there were no other jobs to go to. Who was crying then? The company is still in business today, but with a workforce of only about 100 people.

I see this same attitude everywhere I go. Employees on their cell phones, on company computers for personal use, stealing what is not theirs to take, bitching and moaning that they are overworked and underpaid and they just aren't going to exert themselves any more than necessary. This self-serving attitude is putting our economy in the toilet. So don't just point the finger of blame at someone else, look in the mirror and see if the blame also lies within.