. A special news report on people and their jobs in offices, fields and factories

In 1990 men had a hard time than women bouncing back from a gap in their employment. 

Compiled by, S. F. (1990, Jul 10). A special news report on people and their jobs in offices, fields and factories. Wall Street Journal Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/398186398?accountid=150040

BLAME BOSSES if the quality is poor, workers say. Middle managers agree. Workers at 12 major companies surveyed by consultant Brooks International overwhelmingly insist they are personally committed to meeting quality standards, and most believe fellow workers also try hard. If there is a stumbling block to quality, look to top management, they contend. Two-thirds of the workers say "the quality of work done is not an important measure of performance in my group," and only a quarter believe "management does an excellent job of rewarding work groups who make quality improvement recommendations."Middle managers share the disenchantment. While 78% of top executives declare "management is committed to achieving and maintaining the highest quality levels possible," only 52% of midlevel managers, 46% of first-line supervisors and 43% of workers share the view. Top managers talk quality "but their behavior is different from their words," asserts George Bubrick, Brooks International's president. He cites one company that pressed employees for quality improvements but based rewards solely on the number of units produced.As perceived by workers and midlevel executives, top management "isn't driven by quality," Mr. Bubrick says.WE ARE COMMITTED, companies aver. Some credit workers for showing the way.At Federal Express Co., "it wasn't easy" getting top management to back a new quality program, says John West, quality-improvement manager. But first-line and middle managers formed action committees that proved the process works. Now, he says, "the small fires have spread to big fires." But David Shorrock, executive vice president of Reflectone Inc., insists quality isn't the domain of either top management or workers. "It's a way of life," he says. Neil Keith, manufacturing vice president of Intergraph Corp., concedes workers in the past had seen management as indifferent to quality, but Intergraph, he says, pushes the issue "from the highest level down." Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s commercial nuclear fuel division boasts it held back a shipment -- snapping a three-year on-time delivery record -- when a test that later proved erroneous suggested a product may have been defective. That, says the company, sent a strong signal to workers about management's priorities.HEAL THYSELF! Workers are asked to pick up more of the health-benefit load.Best Products Co., which had been paying the full cost of medical insurance for its 5,000 full-time employees, in February started asking the workers to pay a 15% share. Allegheny Power System Inc. raised employee premiums 10% and increased the deductibles that workers must absorb. Fair Lanes Inc. pares its burden by paying bonuses to workers who opt out of its coverage for a spouse's plan.Spartan Motors Inc. turned to self insurance to cope with its rising cost, and it says the switch is saving $200,000 a year, about 10%. Detroit Edison Co. figures it slowed its cost increase to 7% from 15% a year by offering three new managed-care options and adding deductibles and copayments to its basic indemnity plan. Still, catastrophic illnesses confound health-coverage programs.Bowne & Co. says just three cases last year accounted for 15% of its total medical-benefits bill.MASS LAYOFFS jumped 23% last year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 572,143 workers were laid off for 31 days or more last year in the 44 states that kept a tally of layoffs involving at least 50 workers.UNION RANKS in manufacturing eased to 23.8% of employment last year from 24.9% in 1988, CPAs Grant Thornton says.WOMEN HOLD a quarter to half the management jobs at 22% of the major companies surveyed by Catalyst, a group that fosters female careers. But they have less than 5% of top management spots.NO BUTTS. One in three firms bans smoking, up from one in four last year, says the Administrative Management Society.ODD MEN OUT. Breaks in career are costly for men. Women fare better.Male executives who interrupt their expected continuous climb up the corporate ladder even once -- either by their own choice or because they're let go -- pay for the gaps with smaller paychecks and less job satisfaction, two management researchers find. Joy Schneer of Rutgers and Frieda Reitman of Pace say a study of M.B.A. graduates shows one in eight men with single job breaks earning $14,800 a year under, or 21% below, males with continuous employment. And they're less content.Women are twice as likely as men to take career breaks, usually to raise a child, while men are most often forced out in a corporate restructuring. But the women bounce back. Their earnings drop only $5,600, or 9%, below the pay of continuously employed women, and there is little difference in job satisfaction. If anything, say the researchers, the greatest discrimination is against women who don't take time off.They need six more years of work experience to match the pay of men who also have no break in their careers.THE CHECKOFF: Goodyear Tire worker Carman Davis persuades National City Bank, Akron, Ohio, to print without charge "We ride on Goodyear tires" on the personal checks of Goodyear workers. . . . The average executive each day wastes 72 minutes on unnecessary meetings and 15 minutes waiting on hold, says Accountemps, ignoring time wasted on surveys.