A “Letter from the Boss” was floating around the Internet right after the election.  In general it says “Obama’s poilicies are increasing my expenses, you voted for him, I am laying you off.”    Good political fodder for consevatives and liberals alike.

It has now been 100 days and the DOW hovers just over 8000.   Layoffs continue.   President Obama’s stated budget will dwarf all deficits ever recorded.   So what is a company to do as profits drop?  Many liberals will joke about the “layoff the Obama voter” threads floating around.   But they miss a very important point.   Their ridicule assumes this is invalid because you should conduct layoffs based on performance.   Or that 50+% of people voted for him so how can you lay off “all Obaam voters”.

Both argument are half-truths.  50+% of the people that voted voted for President Obama.  But that is 50% of 50% of the registered population.   But if that 25% of the poluation that voted for Mr. Obama their is a large polulation of those on the government roles.  So when you get to the coporate worker begin considered for layoff the chance of hitting an Obama voter (figuratively) is likley closer to 12-15%.   A perfectly acceptable layoff percentage.

Secone, your best performers may (and should) be your highest paid employees and managers of departments.   Getting rid of those has severe impact on top end capabilty but also quickly reduces costs.    Though you can’t get rid of all you top performers you are likely to see thinning through the managment ranks to create the largest cost reductions.

Since the larger cost is in the volume of people a the mid and lower levels, you are also likely to trim at the lower levels.   In here, again, it is not solely about performance.   It is about potential.   You have already removed some top level people from the company, who will fill those slots in the coming months/years?   How do you assess those younger, less seasoned employees?   Should you choose people that believe corporations are evil, that their job and health care is an entitlement or people that believe their skills are their barter for employment and continued growth is the only path to continued success?   Who has a greater potential to help the organization through these tough times?

I used to buy the line that politics is politics and life and work are separate.   I now believe that this is a philosophy put forth by Liberals to protect themselves in the workplace.   I sounds nice and it “keeps politics out of the workplace.”  But it does not and can not.  Political philosphy comes from your background, your ethics and your personal beliefs.    Your work ethic is a part of it.   You cannot easily separate the two.

You don’t have to look at a bumper to figure out who is who.    You see this is the truth behind the viral nature of the thread.  The truth that the detractors try to mask in their outrage.  On this point the detractors are correct, despite themselves.   You can usually simply layoff the employees that do not pull their weight, that take liberities with their vacation and sick time, that continually want a raise in pay without a raise in responsibility, that complain about the benefits package (including the free lunch).    If you do this you will hit 80% Obama voters.