Human Resources and a Business Decison

Well, it's another early morning.  If I worked a fixed schedule where early mornings were the norm it wouldn't bother me, but they're not.  I have one this week.  Today.  Next week I don't have any.  I do have 3 closings, they wouldn't bother me either if they, too, were the norm.  They're not.  And some times I get mid-shifts, but they don't always start at the same time.  Sometimes I start working at 0900, sometimes 1030, sometimes, like yesterday, I was there at 0800.  Yesterday I had an ' Onboarding.'  Store Managers were transferred back in February, and 'Onboardings' are done, several months after the transfer as way of seeing how lower management is adjusting.  They are always handled by a DHRM or an RHRM.  Yesterday we had a DHRM (District Human Resource Manager), and she did her job well.
Many people get confused with HR.  They believe those individuals are their to help associates, they hire, they fire, and deal with issues.  In reality they do more.  I know, I did HR for a while.  If you are in HR, you are a Company Man / Woman.  One of your main jobs is to manage associate opinions of the Company.  A good HR manager will guide associates and keep them on track and the associates won't even know it.  They'll regard HR as their friend.  They're regard HR as their friend... and that is never really the case.  They are there to enforce company policies.

Back when I worked for xpedx, the distribution subsidiary of International Paper, we had a RHRM named Dave G who was the worst.  I worked with him on a Peer Review Board and he was totally one dimensional.  Associates were nothing to him.  He seemed to enjoy saying, "this is a liability which needs to be taken care."  Yes, he said things like that.  When 37 jobs went to Krakow, Poland, he shrugged and said, "It's a business decision,"without understanding that people were losing their livelihoods.  He was being paid around $300 K a year, which is really good money, to hand you a plate of shit and say "just remember, it's only a business decision."  Isn't it amazing what money can buy?

International Paper pays me off

While my employment with xpedx, the distribution subsidiary with International Paper wasn't rocky, to was quite stormy at times.  I was hired by them about 20 years ago into a low level management position.  Six years into my tenure a higher level position was created, and with my experience I was considered a shoe-in by the people who worked for me.  It was a nice position, $16,000 a year increase, nice job description... and they gave the job to a woman who'd been with the company just a little over a year.  And she turned out to be fairly incompetent, so they created a new job:  AP/AR Liaison Manager.  It was considered a later move for me so they moved me into it and I now had her responsibilities.  She would go out to her car at least once a week and cry because she was so overwhelmed.  Eleven months later she handed in her notice, unfortunately her position was no longer needed since I was already doing the job.  Believe me, AP/AR Liaison Manager doesn't do a thing for your resume.
Four years later International Paper decided it would be more fortuitous if xpedx outsourced the majority of its accounting positions to a company out of Krakow, Poland.  And they bought in the Poles so we could train them to do our jobs.  And I had to sit in on conference calls to help them fix their mistakes.  They did give me a nice severance package, which was nice, but the country had just feet first in the 2nd worst financial crisis in our history and nobody was hiring.  And I thought, hey, I'm shit out of luck.  But then things turned around, karma started kicking in.
I got an entry level Human Resources position with the retail giant I work for, based mostly on my years of Payroll Management.  And then 2 years ago I got a nice check in the mail for International Paper.

Evidently they'd been illegally skimming money off of my 401k deductions.  They didn't take the time to fight the lawsuit, just pretty much wrote me a check.

For the first 3 years I'd been employed with IP, I'd been part of a pension plan.  A plan that was no longer offered when the 401k was offered.  Still, I was a participant... for three years.  Last week I received a letter from IP - they're going to do a one time buy out for certain people.  I called a friend of my who also worked for xpedx and he said "take the money and run."  We both think this is the prelude for IP eliminating the plan completely.  So I jumped on board.  

On June 30 they will cut me a check for thousands.. and thousands.. and thousands of dollars, in fact, around $30,000.  You see this is their payoff.  It's part of their karma.  The mistakes that they made are being fixed.

Are you ready for some Karma?

Just about everybody has heard of Karma, not everybody gets a chance to experience it.  I have.  Four and a half years ago I had a nice, cushy accounting job with a company called xpedx (all lower case letters), the distribution subsidiary for International Paper.  On February 5, 2010 a north east region Buyer position was posted.  I applied, as did one other person.  On February 17, I and 34 others learned out jobs were being eliminated here in the United States, our work was to be handled by a team in Krakow, Poland.  On February 19 the job posting came down.  On February 23, 2010, a woman with a slight disability (she uses a cane) applied for the job.  Guess who got the job?  This was after I had been unofficially notified that I had the position.  The person who makes the ID badges called to tell me my new badge would be arriving Friday, the day the announcement was to be made official.  On Thursday, my day off, this woman filed a complaint with HR saying I'd made sexist comments to her.  They never detailed what it was I was supposed to have said except for one comment.  She claimed that I had said if she gets the job it's because she's pretty.  Looking at a severance date 5 months down the road and certain I was being screwed out of a job, I filed a complaint with International Paper.  An investigation was by the Regional HR as this woman started her new job.  Numerous witnesses were called into the office.  After two months a decision was made.  Management does not make mistakes.  She was going to keep the job.  I was going to be severed.  But things had changed.  I was told my severance date was going to stay the same, I just didn't have to report to the office anymore.  Oh, and the HR manager who'd accepted this woman's application, and also her complaint, suddenly retired two weeks later.

So, are you ready for some Karma?

On my last day at xpedx one of my friends asked if I was worried.  My response?  Nah.  I said if I don't get a job within 5 months then I might start to worry.  What I did do was go to France.  And I bought my first Boxer, Gertie, and worked my part-time cashier job at Home Depot.  Five months and 2 days after my last day at xpedx a new position was posted by the time clock.  The position was for an Associate Support Department Supervisor, which handles some of the HR responsibilities but isn't considered HR.  I applied.  Seven days later I had a new full-time position with a better salary then I'd been getting at xpedx.  

As for xpedx?  It not longer exists.  After years of outsourcing more and more positions, International Paper allowed it to merge with Unisource.  The combined company is now Veritec.  Stress levels in the old xpedx office are nearly unbearable.  They are all waiting for the ax to fall, even the woman who got the purchasing job.  You know what they say, "what goes around comes around."  And as for me?  My life is good.

John Faraci - as unamerican as they get

Before I worked for Home Depot I used to work for xpedx, the distribution branch of International Paper.  What did I do?  Worked in accounting - accounts payable / receivable to be precise.  Back in 2008 our District A/P manager came to our facility in Camp Hill and told us that while International Paper was indeed moving it's accounting to Poland our jobs were not at risk.  Not being  the dumb, easily duped type, I got a part time job at Home Depot.  It was no surprise to me when, in February, 2009, my department was called in and told 'yes, our jobs are going to be outsourced to Poland.'  In the heart of the recession we were told we were losing our jobs.  We were also reminded, constantly, that this was a business decision.  Not only were we being laid off at a time when nobody was hiring, Poles were flown in so we could train them on how to do their jobs.  True, I did receive a nice severance package but I was also 56 years old at the time.  Even today it is quite difficult for your average 56 year old male to change jobs, try and imagine what it was like in 2009.  And this was a business decision made by the CEO of International Paper.  A guy name John Faraci.  During America's worst economic recession this man chose to lay off hundreds of workers and outsource to Poland because it boost xpedx's profitability.  He also decided it would be better for the American economy to send the Credit Departments of every xpedx to Guatemala.  This is John Faraci.

Would you really trust this man?

Yesterday, while I was mixing paint at Home Depot, not one but two associates stopped by and told me the same thing.  Xpedx was being sold to Unisource.  When I got home I found an email from an other associate who said "it looks like their cutting us lose."  She included a copy of a letter she had received from Mary Laschinger, president of xpedx (included below).  A meeting was held on Monday with xpedx employees which provided very little information.  They are in the dark.  And there are a lot of them.  One year ago, this is what they said.  I suspect this, in John Faraci's mind, is another way to outsource.  Will people lose their jobs?  Do you think he really cares?  Remember, it's all about being making money.

Simply put, Rosetta Stone is pretty damn difficult

A long, long time ago, when I was going to Lebanon Valley College, I had to take a foreign language.  Notice, I said take, not learn since you were not really expected to become fluent in that tongue unless, of course, you were a language major.  In high school I had tried Spanish and didn't like it so I chose French and liked it.  When I graduated I was three credits short of it being a double major.  A few years ago, after I was laid off by xpedx so they could out source my job to Poland, I took part of my severance package and went to France.  To my surprise the French I thought I remembered quite well didn't quite jive with what the locals were speaking.  I thought about this for a long time, I mean, how could I be so bad at something I had enjoyed so much.  Then I saw one of the many commercials for Rosetta Stone.

For those of you who don't know, this is what the real Rosetta stone looks like.  What did it do?  It allowed archaeologists to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs into other languages they had already translated.  This rock allowed them to understand just what the ancient Egyptians were painting on the walls of their tombs and carving into their statuary.  However, this is not what I ended up buying.

I bought this instead.  Most people have seen their commercials on television and they do make it seem like a foreign language is easy to learn.  They are, however a bit misleading.  Rosetta Stone works on the immersion theory where if you immerse yourself in, say French, comprehension will be simple.  Wrong.  For myself, I didn't find it that difficult but then I have a background.  For an individual who is starting from scratch it may be overwhelming.  They don't tell you that you should set up a class schedule or that if you're doing less then three or four hours a week you're going to fail.  There is a lot of memorization which needs to take place.  You don't hear something three times and repeat it three times and remember it forever.  The program does work.  They do, however, need to stop implying you can learn a new language in a couple of weeks simply by sitting in front of your computer.  They need to tell the unsuspecting public that if they want to immerse themselves it has to be more then an hour or so a week.  People spend a lot of money on this program with out understanding just how much work is involved.  That's a flaw for Rosetta Stone which should be fixed.

Successful Business do not create jobs!

Today is Labor Day and I'm working.  I'm in retail, an ASDS in a Home Depot store.  I wasn't always in retail and for a vast majority of my adult life I had off every labor day, until September of 2009 when, at the height of the recession, xpedx, a subsidiary of International Paper decided it was fiscally prudent to outsource my job to Krakow, Poland.  And it wasn't just me, every one in my department lost their jobs, a the height of the recession (notice how I repeat myself?).  To add insult to injury they paid to fly in our Polish replacements so we could train them.  These decisions were made by a successful business man name John Feraci.  For some time now we have been fed this notion that if you're a successful business man you know how to create jobs.  That's nothing more then pure horse shit. Successful business men trim fat, they cut programs, they kill jobs in order to be successful.  When they're successful they don't decide to suddenly get fat again.  They want to stay trim because that's what makes them money.

Meg - compassionate or callous?

Take Meg Whitman, she made a nice fortune running Ebay.  She then ran for the position of Governor of California, spending some of her own money to have the voters reject her.  The people of California decided she was unfit to be Governor.  Now she's running Hewlett-Packard and cutting 27,000 jobs.  She's going to make Hewlett-Packard successful.  Does she care about the people who are losing their jobs?  Hell no.  She's getting paid another fortune to make that company make money, not to demonstrate care and concern.  That's not part of her persona.  She doesn't want to be Mother Theresa.    She wants to be in charge.  This is true for all successful business men, it's not about creating jobs, it's not about about controlling people's lives, because people don't matter to successful business men.