Preserve Staff Now!
www.PreserveStaffNow.org
Remember the good 'ole days of '99 when the economy was booming and it seemed like just about anyone could set up a dot-com store-front?
At that time there were sites such as MyBoss.com and MyBossSucks.com. These both invited tales of under-appreciation and resentment, allowing workers to freely express themselves without any censorship. A smart site that focused on more than talk, was E-YourBoss.com. This site would send out letters for a fee from unhappy employees, outlining steps for bosses to improve staff relations. There was also Disgruntled.com, which published a humorous online e-zine, looking at inequities of the modern workplace with a sense of humor.
October 14, 1999 CBS MarketWatch interviewed Daniel Levine editor of Disgruntled.com, who observed with respect to workplace angst:
"Underneath the glorious economy, it's masking this frustration and insecurity that's come in the wake of downsizing. The separation between work and personal life has dissolved a lot. People are overwhelmed by it and don't feel they have a life outside of work and they desperately want one."
That was then, where are we now? Since its inception, Preserve Staff Now! has decried corporate greed. With ENRON and other corporate scandals, the media, politicians and lawmakers are all having to finally heed this issue. Corporate greed has gotten unimaginably out of hand and must be severely curtailed; otherwise the ramifications for our society and our democratic institutions could be catastrophic. Workers must be able to trust the businesses they work for to treat them fairly. According to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll conducted in 2002, most workers' sentiment could be summed up with three words "Trust no one!".
Most of the above-mentioned web sites have either joined the dot-com dead-pool or else are using their domain names for other purposes. But, Preserve Staff Now! steadfastly perseveres. During the "gold rush" of the late nineties, a thought occurred that it might be time to change the name since it seemed so incongruent with the booming New Economy. In fact, during that rosy-tinted period, it even seemed that Preserve Staff Now! was in danger of becoming an anachronism. But, then came the dot-com bust followed by the corporate scandals.
Since 2004 the US jobless rate keeps increasing without abatement in sight. The economic situation has gone from 4.7 million jobless in 2004 (US Department of Labor, January 2004), to 7.0 million unemployed persons in 2007. As of June 2008, there are 8.5 million unemployed persons, and now more than three years later we have over 13 million unemployed (see US Labor Department: Economic Situtation Summary). Clearly, serious problems are stubbornly persisting. Preserve Staff Now! hopes to be a helpful resource in these very trying times.
When the time comes that the modern workplace routinely treats workers with respect and dignity, when it provides safe and secure environments as well as fair pay and health benefits, then this site will be overhauled. Until then, Preserve Staff Now! -- now, more than ever -- remains an advocate for the fair treatment of workers whether pink, blue, white or collarless as we proclaim zero-tolerance for unsavory business practices that result in workers loosing pensions, health insurance as well as their jobs. Our demand, "Preserve Staff Now!", remains the same and so does the name.
