Dollar Thrifty Record Profits --- Sorry Employees no raises....

[zstyles]

So a friend of mine keeps me in the loop about Dollar Thrifty and its fun times there, he told me today at lunch about how they were told Merit Increases would resume in November as they had been frozen for about 2-3 years...they got an email yesterday saying how while health care costs will stay the same, merit increases will only happen to certain people (he didn't know how that would be judged) but he thinks if someone took on the role of two people etc...they were told they would be getting a weeks pay as a bonus in December, but he was really counting on a cost of living adjustment..I wonder if the Tulsa World will pickup on this and run a story on it...seems like having hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank isn't enough to justify paying your workers a little more...I guess it could be worse as some will say I'm sure...

[Hoss]

So a friend of mine keeps me in the loop about Dollar Thrifty and its fun times there, he told me today at lunch about how they were told Merit Increases would resume in November as they had been frozen for about 2-3 years...they got an email yesterday saying how while health care costs will stay the same, merit increases will only happen to certain people (he didn't know how that would be judged) but he thinks if someone took on the role of two people etc...they were told they would be getting a weeks pay as a bonus in December, but he was really counting on a cost of living adjustment..I wonder if the Tulsa World will pickup on this and run a story on it...seems like having hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank isn't enough to justify paying your workers a little more...I guess it could be worse as some will say I'm sure...

Afte seeing 60 of my co-workers let go last week to 'workforce reductions', yeah, I will say 'it could be worse'...

[carltonplace]

Afte seeing 60 of my co-workers let go last week to 'workforce reductions', yeah, I will say 'it could be worse'...

If I were a CEO I would expect a large merit increase if I came up with such a creative cost cutting measure: laying off people. Its so avant garde and so much cheaper than developing and marketing a product that everyone wants to buy.

[Red Arrow]

If I were a CEO I would expect a large merit increase if I came up with such a creative cost cutting measure: laying off people. Its so avant garde and so much cheaper than developing and marketing a product that everyone wants to buy.

But how do you justify hiring more people so you have a continuing pool to lay off?  There has to be a clever trick in there somewhere.

[swake]

But how do you justify hiring more people so you have a continuing pool to lay off?  There has to be a clever trick in there somewhere.

Sure there is. The new people you hire are cheaper than the people you fire, plus you can go on the quarterly investor calls with Wall Street analysts and investors and talk about what a great job you are doing containing costs and increasing profits. Wall Street almost demands regular layoffs anymore. It's more than a little sick. My wife worked for a fortune 50 company that had regular quarterly layoffs right along with regular hiring with annual profits in the multiple billions a year. She was hurt, but I think one of the best things that ever happened to her was getting laid off and out of the sick culture of that company. No I won't say who it was, but many, if not most of the largest companies do just the same thing. Capitalism is the best system we have, but unrestrained capitalism is a vicious beast that will kill us all just to make a buck.

[we vs us]

Sure there is. The new people you hire are cheaper than the people you fire, plus you can go on the quarterly investor calls with Wall Street analysts and investors and talk about what a great job you are doing containing costs and increasing profits. Wall Street almost demands regular layoffs anymore. It's more than a little sick. My wife worked for a fortune 50 company that had regular quarterly layoffs right along with regular hiring with annual profits in the multiple billions a year. She was hurt, but I think one of the best things that ever happened to her was getting laid off and out of the sick culture of that company. No I won't say who it was, but many, if not most of the largest companies do just the same thing. Capitalism is the best system we have, but unrestrained capitalism is a vicious beast that will kill us all just to make a buck.

Rawr. 

[Jeff P]

Sure there is. The new people you hire are cheaper than the people you fire, plus you can go on the quarterly investor calls with Wall Street analysts and investors and talk about what a great job you are doing containing costs and increasing profits. Wall Street almost demands regular layoffs anymore. It's more than a little sick. My wife worked for a fortune 50 company that had regular quarterly layoffs right along with regular hiring with annual profits in the multiple billions a year. She was hurt, but I think one of the best things that ever happened to her was getting laid off and out of the sick culture of that company. No I won't say who it was, but many, if not most of the largest companies do just the same thing. Capitalism is the best system we have, but unrestrained capitalism is a vicious beast that will kill us all just to make a buck.

That's pretty dubious blanket statement.

I work for a very large Fortune 500 company (see my avatar). I've been involved in every quarterly earnings call we've done for 5 years.  I've never heard layoffs brought up once.

[Hoss]

That's pretty dubious blanket statement.

I work for a very large Fortune 500 company (see my avatar). I've been involved in every quarterly earnings call we've done for 5 years.  I've never heard layoffs brought up once.

Lucky you.  Our company was like that.  Until the bottom fell out.  We've had at least bi-annual layoffs since then.

[Jeff P]

Lucky you.  Our company was like that.  Until the bottom fell out.  We've had at least bi-annual layoffs since then.

I'm not saying that layoffs never happen, because they obviously do.

My point was that making a blanket statement like, "Wall Street almost demands layoffs anymore" is just not correct.

The specific metrics that investors and analysts look at vary greatly by industry. The idea that labor costs are the #1 concern among all large companies is pretty out there.

[nathanm]

On the whole the news was not good. Accoring to the statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics there were a grand total of 1,495 mass layoffs in the United States in [September]. Those 1,495 mass layoffs represent a loss of 153,229 jobs. This means that the average mass layoff included a loss of 102 jobs.

[Oil Capital]

merit increases will only happen to certain people (he didn't know how that would be judged)

I think merit increases usually only "happen to certain people".  That is sort of the point of calling them "merit increases"

[cannon_fodder]

Williams, and every other oil company (particularly gas) hasnt had to even consider layoffs in the last 5 years unless they did something REALLY wrong.  Williams has a fine history of layoffs in Tulsa whenever the bubble bursts.

Per DollarThrifty, its hard to comment on the real issue.  They are fighting off takeovers (which is good for Tulsa and employees probably), and are in an industry that has really struggled the last decade or so.