Sharing the Work

California has a program within the unemployment insurance program called Worksharing. For our company, it allows them to retain personnel through an anticipated slump in demand. Our slump came with the collapse of the construction market. After laying off as many people as they dared, the office opted to use the Worksharing program. This means that the remaining employees reduce their hours in order to share a smaller amount of work between them. That meant a twenty percent reduction in hours and pay, and presumably that the office could afford to keep twenty percent of the personnel that they would have otherwise needed to lay off. In our office that translates to 10 individuals. It means that as work starts to come back we have some productivity left to apply to it. It seems like the sensible thing to do. And I couldn't tell you ten people to lay off.

150 words.