You're fired, but it's only business
I had a nightmare. I dreamed Patriots coach Bill Belichick became my boss. On his first day on the job he called me into his office, fixed me with that cold stare of his, and said the following: "Charlie, we appreciate all your years of service to the company, but we are running a business here. We found another economics columnist who is younger than you, every bit as good as you, and we can get him for 70 percent of what we pay you. We wish you continued success wherever you wind up."
Patriots fans will recognize that my nightmare more or less describes what happened recently to Antowain Smith, the team's main running back. Smith helped the Patriots win two Super Bowls, but he was sent packing because at 31 he was judged too old and too expensive. The team feels it can use his salary more productively.
Football fans accept the harshness of such decisions because they know football is all about winning. Loyalty and sentimentality count for nothing. But what about in the factories and offices where the rest of us toil each day? While I would never suggest the typical employer is as cold-blooded as the Patriots, I have the sense the workplace is becoming more Belichick-like every day. Companies are under tremendous competitive pressure and they have to be ruthless about keeping costs down, including personnel expenses.
The net result: Employees feel anxious and threatened. They go home at night wondering if, like Antowain Smith, they will be cut tomorrow. Their insecurity explains why consumer confidence remains shaky in a pretty good economy and why John Edwards's populist message struck a chord in last week's Wisconsin primary.
The Democrats have focused on one particular fear: the outsourcing of jobs to Asia. The number of jobs actually moving to China and India is not great, yet millions of workers worry that their positions are at risk. Wired Magazine, which recently profiled a female computer programmer in India, put the matter quite starkly: "Let's face facts: She could do your $70,000 a year job for the wages of a Taco Bell counter jockey."
Of course, you don't have to cross the ocean to find threats to your job. Last week 3,000 workers, 250 of them in Massachusetts, lost their jobs when the Ground Round, a restaurant chain that has lost its competitive edge, closed 59 outlets with no notice at all.
In California, 70,000 supermarket workers have been on strike since October largely because their employers feel the hot breath of
"We are only as secure as we are good," said Frederick Breimyer, regional economist for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Sometimes good isn't even good enough.
Alan Greenspan is well aware of the insecurity workers feel. "I do not doubt that the vast majority of us would prefer to work in an environment that was less stressful and competitive than the one with which we currently engage," the Federal Reserve chairman said in a January speech. But Greenspan went on to make an important point: that the same forces that create the insecurity -- the relentless pursuit of efficiency and innovation -- contribute to the flexibility and dynamism of the American economy. In other words, the tumult and the turnover is the price we pay for decent growth. If Greenspan is right, we'd all better get used to a Belichick-style workplace. It isn't going away.
Me, I have to go now. I'm going home to do some extra push-ups and wind sprints so I can catch on with another team.
Charles Stein is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at stein@globe.com.
