Although reductions in staff had been expected, the news item still fell like a bombshell: Goodyear, the tyre manufacturer, is sending more than 700 salaried staff home, 350 of these from the company headquarters in Akron, Ohio, alone. The press releases on the subject refer to a "restructuring", holding that the move was necessary to strengthen attempts to accelerate Goodyear's turnaround. With this measure, it is said, Goodyear can remain competitive, and CEO Keegan even demands something like a "winners' attitude" from the remaining associates. This may go down well in America, yet to the ears of staff hit by the cuts, who have not been charged with having done anything wrong, it must sound almost cynical. Meanwhile, Thursday January 16th , Akron witnessed moving scenes among staff. For one thing, no one expected such serious staff cuts; and for another, it looked as if someone had simply gone through the ranks with a rake, plucking out staff members who never even dreamed of being dismissed. The entire proceeding bears a certain handwriting and leads one to suspect that top and higher-echelon management made the decisions more or less on their own, and that middle management, presumably was not involved in the matter and now lives in fear of a loss of functionality. In the end, the work to be done has neither gone away nor even lessened. Instead, it must be carried out by the employees still holding their positions.
