ostrich

My department is in a transition. Another word for cutting in the expense rate by working lean and especially cutting in the number of employees, colleagues. So in the few last weeks the pressure was really on. There was a kind of doom or an ostrich like scenario among people. Some people just faced the facts: It will come like it is. Other people seemed to be powerful: nothing will happen to me. I felt all of it. In fact I was scary. But when I face the facts I know there is a social plan, a livebuoy. But still I felt not really sure. On Monday we had a mail of the transition manager. He excused himself for the fact that he couldn't keep the agreement making clear the position of all the 235 employees. At the end of the week a letter with our position in the transition would be send. That means that Saturday the letter would be delivered by the postman. Have a good weekend! The weekend was not really bad. A lot of cycling (Tour the France) was on television. The weather was fine. But I didn't cycle for myself. That mountain experience and the orthodontist made me sick. I could cycle for almost ten days after the mountain when I catched a cold. The brace doesn't feel good. Eating is difficult. Maybe I don't get enough Vitamin C.

The transition might have some consequences for my team. One girl has to move to another department because her work is 50% or more what will be done somewhere else in this municipality. Now she lives close to her work and that fits her, because she has 3 little children. She can be home in a moment. Now she will have to go to work at the other side of the city. This all will be implemented in early 2013. The whole transition will only be effective on the first of January 2015 and will gradually be implemented.

Friedman's laisser faire

Milton Friedman on YouTube


Free markets, they make cars with names like KIA and they are sold.
Free markets are imperfect. Governmental interference is necessary.

Governmental interference is especially important nowadays in order to keep the economy running and cash flowing. The world economy comes to a halt if Governments don't support companies with works, like infrastructural works. It's like what happened in Germany in the '30 of the 20th century.

Hitler began to build the motorways, railroads and later huge war craft spending. It helped Germany. I'm not saying we need a third world war but we need Government to activate companies by for instance beginning infrastructural renewal earlier than scheduled. The same for city renewal, building new things. The Eiffel Tower boosted French economy in the 19th century. The world exhibition in Spain and Portugal in the 21st century did the same for the organizing cities. It's all public spending.

What the European Union does in new memberstates in Eastern Europe is also a kind of Governmental stimulus. What to think about Irish poverty before this country joined the EU and how it´s doing now. That island has value for the EU. First Governmental EU intevention had to stimulate companies to go Ireland.

In Holland we have a culture of mutual understanding between the social partners (Government, employers and employees). They must work together to get things done. For Instance, my country lies 5 metres below see level. Dikes keep the water out. That needs working together of the whole country, no one excluded, and that cannot be done by Friedman's -laisser faire, laissez aller- economic theory.
Also the social partners are working together in a bad economic situation to keep the negative effects (a rise in wages, extra inflation, dissatifaction of the people) as low as possible. We need mutual understanding and trust, that's called -het poldermodel-. Clinton knew it, the Dutch model, the poldermodel.

KIA means Killed In Action by the way. Would you drive a car named KIA or do you say what's in a name?
I'm sorry for those KIA and their relatives.

busy

This weekend I've had a long one. I had a day off last Friday. That means cycling every day. Training for the summer holiday in July.
The winter isn't that cold here in Holland, especially this year. That means a lot of training possibilities.

At work I got a lot to do and a lot of things at work keep me busy.
Last week I had with about 10 other employees a short discussion about changes in work...should we work with more (or less) entrepreneurship in our work. The pilots my department works on (2 levels) was relatively new for the discussion-leader and he is the big boss.
I tried to make clear that my department already creates a higher service level towards the citizens. I guess that I partly succeeded in making my point. Hopefully management wakes up.

Here is an example of a problem of communicating with management. They don't really know what's happening on the workfloor