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Imagine if Merrill Lynch or Lehman Bros. had been run like this

Paul Levy reports on a "town meeting" for Beth Israel staffers to try to come up with ways to cut costs without laying off workers:

... As expected, the response from the staff has been spectacular. People have a terrific sense of community and are quite willing to make sacrifices for the good of their fellow workers. (And, as you can see in the picture above, people are maintaining a good sense of humor, too.) I'm going to post some of their comments for you below so you can get a sense of the sentiment.

Beyond the general feeling, I was very, very pleased when I asked people if they agreed with my predisposition to protect our lower wage earners (e.g., transporters, housekeepers, food service people) from measures we take, even if it means that other people have to give up more of their salary and benefits. The response was overwhelmingly positive. ...

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Comments

This is one example of the kind of dialogue and communication that can help to avoid layoffs. In this economy, pay freezes and perhaps even modest pay reductions are infinitely better and more humane than picking X percentage of people to toss out into the cold -- and in some cases that's too close to a literal characterization. But employers do have to be transparent about their numbers in order to get buy-in, and too many have not been. It's one reason why the situation with the City of Boston and its union is likely to get ugly...

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