Chapter 16 Blog

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/11/ap6156175.html

Summary: The recent recession has hurt many businesses, and sacrifices are having to be made in order to keep these businesses operational. My article is on a Television company called "Belo", this company was one of the many hit by the powerful storm of the recession. Belo had to cut 150 jobs and decrease salaries. The cutting back of salaries started in Dallas where it only affected employees working there. Unfortunately, the news that the salaries of all employees will soon be chopped down was announced March 11th. Belo, which owns over 20 Television Stations, also reported that the cutbacks in wages will take place in mid April.

Connections: This article is connected with Chapter 16 in the way that it deals with "Salaries". Chapter 16 states that a salary is a fixed sum of money paid to an employee on a regular basis over a period of time. My article deals with a company called Belo, which had to decrease that salary by 5%. This can be a big deal as it could make thousands of dollars of loss in the salaries of their employees. In chapter 16 it is said that salaries can be decreased if the employee isn't up to standards for what they are getting paid. Unfortunately in this case, even if the employee was excellent they still have to take a salary cut.

Reflection: I think that this sacrifice for the company had to be done, but it could have been done in a way so that salaries of good employees were unharmed. Like many other businesses have done recently, Belo could have cut jobs of their more inexperienced and less than decent workers in order to save money, while keeping their excellent employees happy by maintaining their salaries. I believe that because they dropped salaries, many of Belo's employee's will quit (even the very good ones) and Belo will end up having the same effect as they could have had if they had just cut more jobs in the beginning, except they will have lost many of their high performance employees.