Peter Apps wrote:Consumer Products Guy wrote:
This trend of getting rid of higher-paid (older) employees seems to be in fashion in U.S. Mrs. Consumer Products Guy mentioned that almost everybody we know over 55 years old from private industry has been released somehow and is now trying to make ends meet being "a consultant". So lots of consultant shingles hanging up here....
It was all the trend in SA also, with the added advantage to the bean counters and brown nosers that they could label it as transformation by replacing the old one with a young one fresh out of college. It didn't work well.
Peter
Most places learn to late that it is not so easy to replace experience with youth. What they save in salary they lose when needing the "consultants" to make up for the lack of knowledge, or just in lost productivity.
Environmental labs have always had the problem of trying to cut costs any way possible. When I started here 25 years ago we had seven degreed chemist in the chromatography department alone, now we have three in the whole lab. They didn't fire any, but replaced any that left with techs.
I just turned 50, so I have been watching closely how things are trending, but I feel safe so far because the new graduates I am seeing are demanding higher salaries than the older workers. Starting out is way more expensive now than it was when I first graduated from college.