People say this with wonder, ‘profit before employees’, as if it used to be different? Profit has always been more important than employees here at UP and I don’t think anything has changed there.
9 replies (most recent on top)
Lying Lance is the worst CEO in Union Pacific history, and he will be remembered as such!
That should be UP’s new slogan. Instead of “Building America” it should be “Profit Before Employees”.
That should be the new title of the next StraightUP truth article - “Profit has always been more important than employees”. I’d love to see what kind of responses that gets.
What changed is the lack of concern for long term consequences. These PER short term increased gain will cost profits in the long term future. Another change is in the disregard of value in railroad tradesmen and the work they perform. Holding a BA or BS from a mediocre university in higher regard than a seasoned employee who has learned in a tactile fashion from years of trial and error experience is an absolute failure. It's counter productive to want a seasoned CEO like Hunter Harrison but then let some Forest Gump w/ a degree make decisions over the employees that actually physically facilitate the work that profit is derived from.
Think about this and look around.
People get promoted that have no business moving up.
- A person advanced solely because of an EEOC lawsuit.
- Another who went AWOL in the military. Then hired with the RR and got a foreman general position because if he wasn't promoted. "We'll have more trouble on our hands if he don't get the job."
- Another got advanced b/c his dad died on the job.
- One person got a post he wasn't qualified for. Why? Since he was easily controllable.
- Someone was suing the RR over a back injury. They advanced this person to counter litigations.
- When overseeing a workgroup, an incompetent manager will advance the least desirable. Do you know why? Move out the hindrance and make that team stronger.
Now look around and litmus test who is in charge. Then all will know why this company is in the dire straights it's in.
UP employees are a liability. No ifs, and, or buts. It was never understood how a company can hire, with enthusiasm, people. Then harass them almost immediately upon employment. There is only one explanation. The leaders at UP are incompetent a-holes. Everyone under them are a threat and they need to be put to heel. This isn't a theory. Many excellent workers have been harrassed out of a decent job. To fix this cr@p, the whole system would need overhauled. And UP will not even acknowledge their weakness in this regard. Incompetence breeds incompetence. And the whole leadership structure has been infected.
Regards!
Things drastically changed when Jim Young left as CEO due to his illness. The changes in CEO the next few years as well as the implementation of PSR totally changed the culture and work environment of UP. Profit is important for all organizations, but UP is only looking at stock dividends, not the long term health and reputation of the company. I worked for UP for 30 years and can tell you it is like work for a totally different company since PSR. Profits override all other considerations and nothing else is important. The leadership doesn’t care about the long term implications of this because they will be wealthy from their stock option and long gone when the ramifications of this toxic leadership show in the future.
The leadership changed. In order for a company to have profits, it needs to have employees. When a company spends a huge amount of time laying off its employees, then one could guess accurately what happens to profits. If a company can't be trusted or is hated by its own employees, then how are the customers supposed to trust them or like them? If you take care of your employees, those employees will take care of the customers. It's really simple logic.
Profit is the most important at any company but UP went full re--rd. And you never go full re--rd