Scheduling
Time & Attendance
Forecasting
Employee App
Payroll Integrations
Communications
Workplace Culture
By Todd Henneman
Mar. 15, 2012
Employers in the 1950s sought lifelong employees and competed for talent by promising employment stability and long-term financial security, says Nelson Lichtenstein, professor of history at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
“One of the major thoughts was: ‘What we need are stable workforces. We don’t want people to leave. We want people to stay,’ ” Lichtenstein says. “That was taught in business schools, in personnel management, and was thought to be the most advanced and efficient way to run a workplace. Today, turnover and contingent work are built into the cake. It’s a product of managerial decisions that this is the way they want to run their workplaces. That’s the biggest shift between the 1950s and today.”
The 1950s was the heyday of the paternalistic company. It also was an era when unions represented one-third of workers. Nonunion companies such as Eastman Kodak Co. and IBM Corp. matched or surpassed the medical and health benefits that unions negotiated elsewhere in hopes of remaining nonunion shops, Dubofsky and Lichtenstein say.
Nonmanufacturing layoffs such as those announced this past February by Procter & Gamble Co. would have been unimaginable in the 1950s, says Dubofsky, co-author of Labor in America: A History. “If anything, they were hiring more people at those levels.”
Todd Henneman is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
Come see what we’re building in the world of predictive employee scheduling, superior labor insights and next-gen employee apps. We’re on a mission to automate workforce management for hourly employees and bring productivity, optimization and engagement to the frontline.
Workplace Culture
Workplace productivity statistics and trends you need to knowSummary There was a 2.4% decrease in productivity in Q2 2022 – the largest decline since the U.S. Burea...
productivity, statistics, trends, workplace
Workplace Culture
5 lunch break statistics that shed light on American work cultureSummary Research shows how taking lunch breaks enhances employee engagement and productivity. Despite t...
lunch breaks, scheduling, statistics
Workplace Culture
6 Things Leadership can do to Prevent Nurse BurnoutSummary Nurse burnout is a serious issue in the healthcare business and has several negative consequenc...
burnout, Healthcare, hospitals, nurses