This is a story of real income dropping in the heartland. In spite of it being anecdotal, it is, nonetheless instructive of just how this can come about in a land of plenty – when greed dictates the business decisions of the powers that be.
Our story involves real people and real businesses so names have been changed to protect the innocent.
My spouse “Diane” is the protagonist of the story. Diane is a born and bred Arkansan whose family instilled in her a strong work ethic: that hard work and dedication will lead to success. When the trials and tribulations of life led her to the divorce from her first marriage, she was facing life on her own with only her current skillset and about 45 hours of college credit.
Diane came to be employed by “General Practitioners of Little Rock” about 20 years ago. She worked as a front desk receptionist making under $10/hour. It was just enough to afford a tiny apartment and a modest car payment but she made ends meet. Nonetheless, her work ethic earned her a good reputation amongst the doctors in the clinic and the admiration of her coworkers. She always received the best marks in her annual performance review, which helped boost her meager salary. Her eagerness to help and pleasant demeanor won the hearts of the many patients she came to know over the years. In due time, the clinic — now known as GPLR Central flourished to the point that they expanded to a sister clinic on the affluent side of town: GPLR West. But a storm began brewing.
Fast forward 20 years. Diane is now enjoying life as a wife of an adoring “Prince Handsome” husband of 16 months. But like any other Cinderella story, there has to be a “wicked step-mother”. This would take the form of a new manager of clinic operations: Ella. Ella rules with a sharp tongue, hot temper, and a scorched earth policy. She has been given free rein to use a management style of “fear and loathing” to effect the outcome of the clinic’s bottom line.
So it came to pass that Diane had her annual performance review last March. Recall that her personnel file contains only glowing remarks to this point. As usual, she receives more good feedback, but there is a hitch: her salary is now “capped” at $18.41/hour and will no longer receive any pay raises. All those years of service and devotion have now been rewarded with a slap on the face and a hurt on her pocketbook! This is the just reward for achieving the American Dream™.
And so it came to pass that this was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to workplace indignities. Suddenly, what were once solid performers in the office known for their good attendance records and superior administrative skills became pariahs in the clinic. Diane’s best friend and coworker of 7 years, Sheila began receiving negative feedback for petty office misadventures. In the face of Diane’s best nurturing and grooming of Sheila’s skillset and the efficiency of these two running the front end of a busy family practice, it became apparent that their hard work was no longer good enough. In time, Diane herself was called into Ella’s office and chastised for the smallest of HIPPA infractions and written up. Not even a week later, Diane again finds herself back in Ella’s office, this time being threatened with accusations of insubordination and getting written up for a totally bogus reason! Now, granted that AR is a so-called “right to work” state, one can become unemployed for *any* reason. The only caveat is, if one finds oneself filing for unemployment, the previous employer will be forced to pay unemployment benefits if there isn’t a darned good reason. I personally lost my job in 2009 due to “offshoring” and since my position was eliminated, “HAL Computers” had to pay me unemployment benefits… but I digress. Neither GPLR West nor GPLR Central wants to pay unemployment benefits, so they have to become creative if they want to get rid of highly compensated individuals.
Diane begins to hear other office horror stories: trained, experienced technical staff such as RNs begin receiving the same BS treatment. Of course, RNs can command the going rate for the region, and Little Rock is a hub for superior medical care. But it leaves one wondering why any reputable clinic would want to run off RNs, much less experienced administrative staff.
I know what it’s like to be forced out of a job, due to finding out I’m “not cut out for retail” many years ago. Not being one prone to believe in Conspiracy Theories, I developed my personal thesis for this abhorrent behavior: Diane – and other highly-paid professionals – were being forced out of their jobs! But why?
Here is my thesis: the doctors of the clinic – in their sheer greed – have made a pact with the office managers. If, by the end of the year, the clinic collective makes a target profit of X number of dollars, then the doctors will pay themselves and their managers a bonus. They leave it up to the managers to decide how they will reduce costs and boost revenue to achieve said profit target.
I base my thesis simply on the observation of the behaviors of the antagonists and the resulting behaviors of the staff. Once, where the office had a solid coterie of battle-hardened veterans, now begins losing RNs by the droves. On one “Black Wednesday”, a doctor had two RNs suddenly walk off the job in the middle of the shift! And so we find ourselves in the month of July. Sheila – herself recently a recipient of BS personnel write-ups - is fed up and begins looking for work at another clinic, which she is more than capable of. Diane, now suffering from the physiological effects of enormous stress, is left with the aching decision of whether or not to leave the clinic and find gainful employment elsewhere. But there is a catch! Where once GPLR Central had the “golden handcuffs” on Diane, Sheila and others now have decent salaries as a “golden albatross” around their necks, causing them to face potential pay cuts in order to work for other clinics. Rock, meet hard place.
Meanwhile, back at GPLR West, the well-established revolving door of great employees leaving marginal ones behind working for less pay begins revolving like a spinning top. Not long ago, one doctor there was overheard saying, “Why should we learn these new girls’ names when they will be gone in a few weeks?”. The management style of fear and loathing makes keeping adequate help at the west clinic all but impossible. Their patients have already begun grumbling or simply finding health care elsewhere. Then another doctor is overheard at GPLR Central, saying “We will never become like West”. Ah, never say “never”, pal.
It comes to pass that GPLR Central has to find a replacement for Sheila but not before she gave her 2 weeks’ notice the week before. It doesn’t take the new girl, Betty, very long at all to discover the management style. Nonetheless, Betty gets a marginal stab at training. Then the other shoe drops: Diane finds gainful employment elsewhere… with a 15% cut in pay! But what price, peace of mind? That very day, she gives her 2 week notice. Now GPLR Central has to find replacements of *both* their front desk specialists. The next shoe to drop is Betty getting word just yesterday that she has been hired at the same clinic Diane soon starts working for in another week (you guessed it: a cut in pay). GPLR Central doesn’t know it but they are training someone who has *no* intention of staying. Soon and very soon they will find themselves attempting to train two replacements for the receptionists’ positions. Karma has a foot in the door.
Please understand that the amount of experience necessary for the receptionists to be effective takes years, not weeks. It would seem that the doctors/managers decision to force out the experienced help and replace them with others working for rock-bottom wages is short-sided. But what other explanation is there? The decision to recklessly slash personnel costs will quickly become concomitant revenue losses when insurance claims begin to be rejected due to errors; not to mention the number of patients who have already begun finding out that there is something rotten in Denmark.
My thesis will probably remain unproven. If someone else has another theory for such management behavior, I’d love to entertain it. But here in the heartland, this is how you can find yourself on the losing end of the so-called trickle-down theory.