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By Logan Price
The goal of any company is to supply a product or service that customers are willing to pay for. If a company provides a good that consumers are willing to pay a lot of money for, the company will similarly earn a lot of money. As long as the amount of money the company brings in is more than the amount they spend to make the good the company will profit and grow. To fuel this growth companies must invest in additional resources and must increase its number of workers. During times of growth few employees are laid off and the company is making money.
However, a company’s product or service may no longer be desired by consumers over time. Some reasons this might occur are because the good has gone out of date or a competitor may have created a better product or may offer a better service. Loss of demand happens all the time in a competitive business environment. With so many companies trying to sell their products or services it becomes essential for companies to continually improve upon existing offerings so they do not fall behind competitors. But companies do fall behind, and as a result growth and profits quickly turn to layoffs and losses. Sometimes losses are so bad that the company cannot survive and simply closes down. Other times the lost revenue is not enough to shut down the company. In this instance the company cuts some resources and workers in order to survive the downturn in business. When companies decide to do this it is called downsizing .
To downsize, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is
to fire (employees) for the purpose of downsizing a business.The reasons for downsizing businesses vary, but the main reason for doing this is because the product(s) or service(s) that the company offers is not as successful as it once was. As a result revenues decrease, and expenses (costs like materials and employees) must be cut to counter the lost revenue. Obviously, employees do not like it when they get laid off. However, downsizing is something that neither the company nor the employees want to see happen. Since both sides suffer (the company loses money and the worker loses a job) downsizing is often not met with strong resistance from employees. One reason for this lack of resistance is that employees understand that they are not being fired for doing a bad job. Employees tend to be more understanding if a company is forced to reduce its labor force. Also, the employees that are laid off during a downturn are normally the first ones to be rehired if business picks back up. Business will always have companies that are growing and companies that are dying, and downsizing and layoffs are a natural part of that cycle. Since downsizing is a normal part of business it can often be seen as necessary and reasonable.
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