söndag 22 februari 2009

SAAB

På någons grav stod
"Sörj inte över att jag inte finns, gläds över att jag har funnits!"

Trots varm sympati för alla som kan bli arbetslösa om och när SAAB läggs ner vill jag ändå ge tipset att tänka om. Ni har haft fördelen att under upp till 20 års tid ha haft arbete och få lön trots att ni arbetat i ett företag som gradvis förblött. Ni har fått bröd trots företagets död. Var tacksamma, inte förbannade.

Sörj inte över att ditt arbete försvinner, gläds över att det har funnits!

3 kommentarer:

Anonym sa...

Absolutely right!

If all these men and women are to survive psychologically, this is the best stance they can take. There's much to be said for having had a good life. Even I, an unknowledgeable observer could see long, long ago that 'gas guzzlers' with huge wheels and lots of steel were a thing a the past.

Listen, all you employees with wonderful expertise, think of some wonderful innovative thing to do with that knowledge. Turn the negative into a positive.

Anonym sa...

I've thought about gratitude - for that's what you describe" "the virtue of being thankful and ready to return a kindness" (Oxford Pocket Dictionary)
To have had a steady job for 20 years with a salary that has ennabled the stomach to be well fed and the skin to be well warmed does certainly warrant gratitude.
I suppose that many workers are willing to return the kindness by lowering their salaries. Not being privvy to the negotiations I have no idea. The issue is both concrete and philosophical. Philosophically, there is always change. Philosophically, an institution either expands or contracts. Nothing remains still. (In fact, nothing remains in the end). There can never be endless success nor endless security.

Which brings us to wisdom: the wise SAAB worker will have lived modestly, not borrowed, lived within his/her means. The unwise will have taken loans, bought new cars, boats, houses, faraway vacation trips, succumbing to the latest temptations and easy access.

The laying down of SAAB gives time to adapt to the wise and to the unwise desparation.

SAAB has steadily produced 'gas guzzlers', big, heavy and, according to a recent Swedish description "föråldrade" plans. If a company persists in unwise decisions from perhaps unwise motivations, it is wise and natural for it to leave its existing state. The horse is already out of the stable.

Someone always suffers in such a situation. It is possible that there was too much security? Perhaps there was so much security that no one ever thought to say a word about changing production principles. Perhaps no worker ever thought to influence the higher ups and say "Hey, this is ridiculous. No one wants big gas consuming cars anymore. Think small!" Was there no suggestion box in the factory?

Was there too much passivity, too little power?
The cow is out of the barn, the horse has left the stable. If someone can get them back, everyone involved may have a chance to 'return the kindness'.

In the meantime, the wise will have made a cushion and the unwise debts.

Gratitude has the quality of softness and adaptablity, anger and bitterness have hardness as theirs.

The gratitude idea is not a bad start.
Arlene Corwin

Anonym sa...

Future generation will look back one day in disgust and wonder at the stupidity in the days when people drove in gazoline consuming, polluting and roaring cars. The fact that demand for cars is in a free fall seems healthy to me. Only too often, in our comfort, we need a major disaster to wake up and change our behavour. Once we change, the industry will then follow. But we need to change first.