3 ms·

Small subset, fun for author of article to profile. The one person I know personally who protested was concerned that the lowest paid, most vulnerable workers

by davi 17y ago

Small subset, fun for author of article to profile. The one person I know personally who protested was concerned that the lowest paid, most vulnerable workers (janitors, contract security guards, etc.) were the first to feel the bite, ahead of the 'fat cats' who had the power within the institution to fight back to protect their turf. Most of us just said, "Eh, that's too bad" and went back to work.

mdasen 17y ago
To play devil's advocate. . . It's not that the 'fat cats' have power to fight back. It's that they're less easily replaced. If you get rid of a janitor and need to replace them in a couple months because you really needed them, it's an easy HR process. If you get rid of a 'fat cat', there will be months of interviews to replace them, you might not get someone as good, etc. It's not that you have power in the institution, it's that you have other options and are of higher value to the institution. I mean, I'm a lowly computer programmer a couple years out of college. But if they wanted to replace me, there'd be a long interview process and then a huge learning curve as they brought the new person up to speed on the byzantine systems we have. So, they can't let me go as a test of whether they could get by without me because the cost if they're wrong is high. That doesn't make it righteous, it just means that it isn't simply having power in the institution so much as being of less easily replaced value to the institution.
- vermontdevil 17y ago
  But isn't the same fat cats that got the whole business in trouble to begin with? So what makes them so valuable?
  - dschobel 17y ago
    This discussion is useless unless you get more specific than 'fat cat'.
    - davi 17y ago
      Yes, I regret the choice of words. Harvard is a federation of many nearly autonomous entities. The Business School cannot tell the Medical School what to do, etc. By 'fat cats' I meant power centers who can't be commanded to downsize -- at least, not quickly -- by anyone. The people protesting layoffs were, essentially, protesting this structure, whether they realized it or not. Some of them did realize it, and so were a little more aware than the G-G-P's hypothetical Californian voting for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses.

by davi 17y ago

mdasen 17y ago

To play devil's advocate. . . It's not that the 'fat cats' have power to fight back. It's that they're less easily replaced. If you get rid of a janitor and need to replace them in a couple months because you really needed them, it's an easy HR process. If you get rid of a 'fat cat', there will be months of interviews to replace them, you might not get someone as good, etc. It's not that you have power in the institution, it's that you have other options and are of higher value to the institution. I mean, I'm a lowly computer programmer a couple years out of college. But if they wanted to replace me, there'd be a long interview process and then a huge learning curve as they brought the new person up to speed on the byzantine systems we have. So, they can't let me go as a test of whether they could get by without me because the cost if they're wrong is high. That doesn't make it righteous, it just means that it isn't simply having power in the institution so much as being of less easily replaced value to the institution.

vermontdevil 17y ago
But isn't the same fat cats that got the whole business in trouble to begin with? So what makes them so valuable?
- dschobel 17y ago
  This discussion is useless unless you get more specific than 'fat cat'.
  - davi 17y ago
    Yes, I regret the choice of words. Harvard is a federation of many nearly autonomous entities. The Business School cannot tell the Medical School what to do, etc. By 'fat cats' I meant power centers who can't be commanded to downsize -- at least, not quickly -- by anyone. The people protesting layoffs were, essentially, protesting this structure, whether they realized it or not. Some of them did realize it, and so were a little more aware than the G-G-P's hypothetical Californian voting for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses.