just look at HON stock and you'll be able to understand what's happening - it's all about shareholders, and if your job is not helping with us trying to please shareholders you are gone - days when a company cared about worker and his family are long gone, so embrace this beautiful system and enjoy your time here at Honeywell...
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It has always been about the shareholders. And you are right: if one is not aligned with that priority, one ought to consider employment elsewhere, where shareholders do not come first (where?) Yesteryear it was really the same (share holders came first,) we just felt better about it because it was a different world, and we (workers) were more in the driver's seat. Not so much labor competition from abroad. Unions were stronger and companies had fewer realistic choices for workforce, among other things. Today, all that is changed, markets and labor supply. In any case one way or another we find ourselves doing more for a lot less. One may get 3% salary increase, but then one may be required to work 20 or 30 percent overtime for free or more (salary folks do.) You may still have benefits, bet they are so diluted that they we may be tempted to drop them as worthless (medical benefits, that is.) Companies would love to not have anything to do with the medical benefit thing. They are pushing hard to give it all to the employee. Some companies have done away altogether with pension programs or the contribution is less and less, or suspended contribution and painfully slow to recover, if ever.
I say, we forget about being cared for and become more aggressive about caring for ourselves. Let us be our own priority and be ruthless about it. Let us treasure and take advantage of the years of "plenty" and always prepare for the years of furloughs. We have to go with the current rules. Play that game as there is no other. When that happens the balance of power will shift, as long as there is always a unique offer from the American labor force... and there is! How many times do we have to re-do what is done elsewhere for us? How many trips do we have to take all the way to India or China to go fix something that we could fix walking ten paces before? There is a certain falsehood regarding the absolute value of outsourcing and the total replacement of the American "know-how" and commitment to excellence!