Idle Hands
Detroit's Symbol of Dysfunction:
Paying Employees Not to Work
Cost Tops $1.4 Billion a Year

By JEFFREY MCCRACKEN (from today's Wall Street Journal)
March 1, 2006;

FLINT, Mich. -- In his 34 years working for General Motors Corp., one of
Jerry Mellon's toughest assignments came this January. He spent a week in
what workers call the "rubber room."

The room is a windowless old storage shed for engine parts. It is filled
with long tables, Mr. Mellon says, and has space for about 400 employees.
They must arrive at 6 a.m. each day and stay until 2:30 p.m., with 45
minutes off for lunch. A supervisor roams the aisles, signing people out
when they want to use the bathroom.

Their job: to do nothing.


This is the "Jobs Bank," a two-decade-old program under which nearly 15,000
auto workers continue to get paid after their companies stop needing them.
To earn wages and benefits that often top $100,000 a year, the workers must
perform some company-approved activity. Many do volunteer jobs or go back to
school. The rest must clock time in the rubber room or something like it.

It is called the rubber room, Mr. Mellon says, because "a few days in there
makes you go crazy."

The Jobs Bank at GM and other U.S. auto companies including Ford Motor Co.
is likely to cost around $1.4 billion to $2 billion this year. The programs,
which are up for renewal next year when union contracts expire, have become
a symbol of why Detroit struggles even as Japanese auto makers with big U.S.
operations prosper.

While GM often blames "legacy costs" such as retiree health care and
pensions for its troubles, its Job Bank shows that the company has inflicted
some wounds on itself. Documents show that GM itself helped originate the
Jobs Bank idea in 1984 and agreed to expand it in 1990, seeing it as a
stopgap until times got better and workers could go back to the factories.

"The bank was designed for a different time, a time when we were growing,"
says Pete Pestillo, a former Ford executive who oversaw union talks. The
Jobs Bank has failed to stop the outflow of jobs at Detroit's unionized auto
makers. Since 1990, GM's union payroll including former subsidiary Delphi
Corp. has fallen to about 137,000 from 358,000. Many have retired, died or
found other jobs. The rest are in the Jobs Bank.

Mr. Mellon, a 55-year-old father of two, was born in Flint. He joined GM in
1972, following his grandfather and his father, a plant foreman who spent 37
years at GM. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Mellon held jobs designing
electronic systems for vehicle prototypes. In 2000, GM merged two
engineering divisions, and he wasn't needed anymore.

Since then, except for a period in 2001 when he worked on a military-truck
project, GM has paid him his full salary for not working. That is currently
$31 an hour, or about $64,500 a year, plus health care and other benefits.


About 7,500 GM workers are now in the Jobs Bank, more than double the figure
a year ago. The bank added 2,100 workers last month when the company closed
a truck-assembly plant in Oklahoma City. Each person costs GM around
$100,000 to $130,000 in wages and benefits, according to internal union and
company figures, meaning GM's total cost this year is likely to be around
$750 million to $900 million.

One way employees in the Jobs Bank can fulfill their requirements is to
attend eight- or 12-week classes offered by GM. In these classes, Mr. Mellon
has studied crossword puzzles, watched Civil War movies and learned about
"manmade marvels like the Brooklyn Bridge," he says. One class taught him
how to play Trivial Pursuit.

More recently, he attended an institute in Flint called the Royal Flush
Academy. It is designed for those seeking work in casinos -- the Detroit
area has several -- and teaches students to deal blackjack and poker. Mr.
Mellon says he isn't interested in casino work and left the academy after
they docked his pay because he was 10 minutes late coming back from lunch.

With that he arrived at the rubber room. It is on the site of the famous
Flint Sitdown Strike of 1936, a 44-day walkout that helped get the United
Auto Workers union recognized at GM. The rubber room and neighboring
buildings that house a technology center are off-limits to outsiders.

Every day for a week Mr. Mellon got up at about 4:30 a.m. to make the
45-minute commute to the rubber room from his home in Otisville, Mich. At
first he read the newspaper or magazines lying around, such as Reader's
Digest. He talked some with acquaintances. After conversation dried up, he
says he spent hours staring at the wall, hoping time would move faster.

One day he asked a supervisor if he could bring in a cot. The supervisor
said no, so he pushed together four padded chairs and slept across them for
several hours. He had stayed up late the night before, anticipating this
nap.

Wrong group.


On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 14:52:01 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:

Idle Hands
Detroit's Symbol of Dysfunction:
Paying Employees Not to Work
Cost Tops $1.4 Billion a Year

By JEFFREY MCCRACKEN (from today's Wall Street Journal)
March 1, 2006;

"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...
Idle Hands
Detroit's Symbol of Dysfunction:
Paying Employees Not to Work
Cost Tops $1.4 Billion a Year

Among all their other nutty ideas, I wonder if GM thought it was a good way
to keep these people from moving away and going to work for Toyota, etc.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...
Idle Hands
Detroit's Symbol of Dysfunction:
Paying Employees Not to Work
Cost Tops $1.4 Billion a Year

Among all their other nutty ideas, I wonder if GM thought it was a good
way to keep these people from moving away and going to work for Toyota,
etc.

They were trying to lock up their employee base to tap into when times are
good.

As a small business owner, I can only imagine the headaches involved for a
large company trying to staff the appropriate number of employees for such a
cyclical business.

On a much, much smaller scale, I face a similar dilemma. Naples is becoming
more and more a year-round residence, but for many it is still very
seasonal. I desperately need a second hygienist for October through
May...but then one hygienist is more than enough in the Summer months.

Do I hire the second hygienist and then put her in the "rubber room" from
June through September?

"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...
Idle Hands
Detroit's Symbol of Dysfunction:
Paying Employees Not to Work
Cost Tops $1.4 Billion a Year

Among all their other nutty ideas, I wonder if GM thought it was a good
way to keep these people from moving away and going to work for Toyota,
etc.

They were trying to lock up their employee base to tap into when times are
good.

As a small business owner, I can only imagine the headaches involved for a
large company trying to staff the appropriate number of employees for such
a cyclical business.

On a much, much smaller scale, I face a similar dilemma. Naples is
becoming more and more a year-round residence, but for many it is still
very seasonal. I desperately need a second hygienist for October through
May...but then one hygienist is more than enough in the Summer months.

Do I hire the second hygienist and then put her in the "rubber room" from
June through September?

No. You assume that your favorite patients also have nice friends, and
figure out a way to incentivize them to bring those friends in. If it works,
you can keep the second hygienist year round.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...
Idle Hands
Detroit's Symbol of Dysfunction:
Paying Employees Not to Work
Cost Tops $1.4 Billion a Year

Among all their other nutty ideas, I wonder if GM thought it was a good
way to keep these people from moving away and going to work for Toyota,
etc.

They were trying to lock up their employee base to tap into when times
are good.

As a small business owner, I can only imagine the headaches involved for
a large company trying to staff the appropriate number of employees for
such a cyclical business.

On a much, much smaller scale, I face a similar dilemma. Naples is
becoming more and more a year-round residence, but for many it is still
very seasonal. I desperately need a second hygienist for October through
May...but then one hygienist is more than enough in the Summer months.

Do I hire the second hygienist and then put her in the "rubber room" from
June through September?

No. You assume that your favorite patients also have nice friends, and
figure out a way to incentivize them to bring those friends in. If it
works, you can keep the second hygienist year round.

My hygienist was booked out 4-6 weeks last summer. That was the first time
such a thing happened. Currently, I don't have a prophy appointment
available until July unless somebody cancels their already-scheduled
appointment.

But adding a second hygienist means building a second treatment room...and
adding another dental assistant.

And a man's headaches are directly proportional to: a) the number of
internal combustion engines he owns, and/or 2) the number of women in his
employ. ;-)

"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...

And a man's headaches are directly proportional to: a) the number of
internal combustion engines he owns, and/or 2) the number of women in his
employ. ;-)

Almost correct. Change "man" to "boy". Men have no problem with women.

"Fred Dehl" wrote in message
...
"NOYB" wrote in
ink.net:

Do I hire the second hygienist and then put her in the "rubber room"
from June through September?

Send her to the beach in a bikini to hand out promo toothbrushes.

Ahhhh. Good idea. Ring it up as a marketing expense...and save FICA.

NOYB wrote:
"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"NOYB" wrote in message
hlink.net...

Idle Hands
Detroit's Symbol of Dysfunction:
Paying Employees Not to Work
Cost Tops $1.4 Billion a Year

Among all their other nutty ideas, I wonder if GM thought it was a good
way to keep these people from moving away and going to work for Toyota,
etc.


They were trying to lock up their employee base to tap into when times are
good.

As a small business owner, I can only imagine the headaches involved for a
large company trying to staff the appropriate number of employees for such a
cyclical business.

On a much, much smaller scale, I face a similar dilemma. Naples is becoming
more and more a year-round residence, but for many it is still very
seasonal. I desperately need a second hygienist for October through
May...but then one hygienist is more than enough in the Summer months.

Do I hire the second hygienist and then put her in the "rubber room" from
June through September?




Just give each girl a 6 or 8 week vacation each year. That way you'll
only have one body present all summer long.

Doug Kanter wrote:
"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...


And a man's headaches are directly proportional to: a) the number of
internal combustion engines he owns, and/or 2) the number of women in his
employ. ;-)


Almost correct. Change "man" to "boy". Men have no problem with women.



Hee hee!