Staff Cuts Leave Workers Feeling Overworked
COMPANIES that attempt to stay competitive by reducing staff risk leaving their remaining employees feeling severely overworked, according to a recent national survey of 150 business leaders from the country's largest companies.
Eighty-five percent of the executives surveyed say the potential for employee burnout is high among ``lean and mean'' companies.
``In terms of maximizing productivity, there are obvious benefits to maintaining tighter staffing levels,'' says Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps, a Boston-based temporary staffing service that developed the survey. ``But ... there are also major risks in becoming too lean, such as losing core talent to job burnout.'' Small firms bulk up
LARGE companies are getting leaner, while small ones are bulking up, according to a recent study by Financial Executives Institute in Morristown, N. J.
At large companies ($500 million in revenues and up), 32 percent of respondents say they expect to reduce the number of employees over the second half of 1994. In contrast, 51 percent of the respondents from smaller companies (under $100 million in revenues) say they expect to increase employees over the same period.
``Large corporations are continuing to increase their profitability by cutting costs and becoming more efficient,'' says Financial Executives Institute president P. Norman Roy. ``Small companies, by contrast, are growing by adding more people.''
For the love of money
THE love of money may not be as powerful as many people think.
In a survey of 1,007 households, only 4 percent of respondents say monetary success is most important in their lives. Rather, 56 percent of the Americans surveyed report that relationships with family and friends are most important.
Religious faith and spirituality (21 percent), working to improve the world (12 percent), and finding a fulfilling career (5 percent) all outrank the importance of money, according to the survey.
The study was conducted for Lutheran Brotherhood, a Minneapolis-based society that provides financial services for Lutherans nationwide.
