Assignment 4.

Solidarity in times of crisis

The Netherlands is a country which sometimes can be a bit hypocrite. People most of the time try to act like they are loving and compassioned with their follow citizens, doesn’t matter if it is family, friends, a colleague or even the neighbor. When everything goes well it is very easy to be compassioned and understanding but what if this family member, great friend, good colleague or neighbor is hit by the financial crisis? Who will be the first one to reach a helping hand? Most people do not stand in line to help a unfortunate victim of the crises. No, it is more important to stay as far away from such people as possible, you wouldn’t want to get yourself in trouble?!

The same counts for companies. In times of prosperity companies are very kind for their employees, some companies even have whole departments concerned with the physical and mental wellness of their employees. Of course, if a employee feels happy and comfortable it pays off for its employer.

The situation changes in times of crisis, the only health that matters then is the health of the company and/ or owner itself. Reorganizations and dismissals are daily businesses and it seems normal that employees who spend 2/3 of their lives working for a company, get fired before they know what is actually happening. Kindness and employee support is far away at these moments, especially for the ‘elderly’ employees.

People within their late forties, early fifties get fired from one day to another and will probably never work again. This means not on their own level. People who first had a function as manager of a healthcare company now sweep floors within another company in the same branch, people who 30 years ago adopted their lifestyle to their income now have to cut their expenditures and maybe even have to move to another neighborhood because they cannot pay their mortgage anymore. And all this time the only thing their former employer does is making sure it has to pay as less severance pay as possible.

In this view an economical crisis reveals the darkest sides of our modern society, saving your own situation is top priority. It is time for companies to stop being hypocrite and help the employees that served them al those years also when business isn’t going as prosperous as usual. And even if companies are forced to reorganize and have to fire a number of employees, the way they handle it makes a huge difference.