It happened again this morning.  I was attending a speaker series and was engaged in conversation over coffee with the controller for a local lighting distributor.  The conversation centered, as it usually does these days, on the amount of growth or lack thereof we’ve been experiencing over the past year.  This person indicated that while they and many of their customers had been experiencing somewhere on the order of -30% growth, things were starting to get busier.  This seems to be the common sentiment unless you’re in commercial real estate.  This person also indicated that profitability was approaching “robust” due to the cost cutting measures implemented over the past 12 months.

Our conversation moved naturally towards staffing levels.  I heard from him and many others like him, a similar theme: when positions had to be eliminated and headcount reduced, the weakest performers were the first to go and are not likely to be rehired.  Does this seem alarming?  I’m sure it does to those underperformers who are still searching for a position and/or hoping their old employer will hire them back.  I believe most employers have found that they were overstaffed and used the recession and lack of business as an excellent opportunity to not just “trim the fat” but to do so in a precise manner that kept the best talent.

All of this makes great sense for companies.  The best talent always produces the best results for its customers.  Unless a company must perform according to bargaining unit rules, keeping the best and getting rid of the rest is a great first step towards higher customer satisfaction and more profits.  These two things help ensure the long-term viability of the company and everyone is a winner.

“Everyone”, you say?  What about those that have been let go and through my insinuations here, were underperforming?  These people win as well.  Long term, no matter how great the job was, if you are underperforming you will not be satisfied in your position.  This lack of satisfaction will almost certainly translate into some other form of dissatisfaction in other areas in your life.  The sooner someone is “set free” from a bad working situation the sooner they are able to find the right situation.  Standing in the unemployment line gives the person a pretty difficult perspective with which to appreciate this situation.  I have spoken with many who have successfully made it through a career transition and have echoed these sentiments.

I can’t help but think about the difficulties we’ve been through over the past 12 – 18 months as a period of pruning for business.  The branches, and therefore the whole plant, will become stronger in the long run.  However, we didn’t just bundle up the pruned limbs and through them in the fire, they have been or will be replanted and nurtured in a different manner for the benefit of the entire garden as well.