Cabo Rojo reducing hours

Rey,

Sabana Grande is already reducing hours as well. My friend that works there is allowed to apply for unemployment to compensate for it. They are not loosing their benefits which is a good thing thou. Some municipalities are waiting on federal grants to come by to go back into normal hours. Not all the money in a municipality comes from the central government, lost of them relay on federal grands for different projects to keep people employed.

Hopefully the new government will get its act together and things will slowly starting to improve.

The question in my mind is which is better for the Work force.

If flat out fired, you know where you are and the need to find another job in the island or the states. If eligible for retirement one can also use that option. Reducing the number of employees affect a small number of employees, lets say 10% of the work force and the rest are not affected money wise.
If hours reduced but keeping job, you know you are making less money and have to find a part time job if you can to make your money back. This affect a very large portion of employees since the 10% savings is spread amoung all or a significant part of the workers. All of which may look for part time jobs and there are only so many part time jobs.

So let's say 1,000 employees are reduced by 10% which screws 100 but 900 have jobs

Or 1,000 employees have their hours cut by 10%. Some of these will find part time jobs, others will have to suck it up, while others may be forced to quit and look for full time employment else where. Those close to retirement will have to suck it up or they will lose their retirement if they leave.

If like Adlin pointed out, this is temporary then waiting is the right choice as long as they don't take your house or car due to lack of payment.

I think best to screw a few and not the rest, but that is just my opinion.

The main problem is that we as a society, like to live paycheck to paycheck. Some can't or won't save a dime. When something like this happens they are not prepared. I made that mistake on my younger years, then realized that if I wanted to succeed I need to save money and be smart about my expenses.
I do understand that salaries in the island are low and it's hard to save, but not impossible. I have friends that have been prepared for situations like this, others had not.
It's like when you retire, you cannot live on 100% of your retirement, if you do, when the cost of living increases you are screw. That's the mistake a lot of retirees make and then they have to go back to work because they can't afford it.
Going back to the main subject, they are way too many redundancy in the government, the government as a whole will need to be trimmed to be more cost efficient. This will cause people to loose their jobs, unfortunately this is a really. Municipalities are reducing their expenses by not filling openings and reducing hours. The government will habe to be run like a private company in order to survive and some of the perks employees have now will have to be sacrificed. It's starting, look at the new laws been proposed, slowly but surely it will happen. We have the greatest amount of holidays in PR than any other place, do you think that is beneficial? On top of that we have laws that guaranteed bonuses regardless of performance and make firing an employee harder. Just those factors will raise a big red flag to any company thinking on relocating to the island.

So are you pro force reduction or cut in hours?
Sound like you are pro force reduction and increase of productivity.

Today we have too many employees, many move slower than a slug, too many breaks, too many vacation days, too many sick days, too many holidays, employees that don't care about their customers, too hard to fire them, and very ineficient process and procedures driving customers nuts and wasting a day of their life to get something that should take 20 minutes at most.
100% agree, it has to change, the current system is not helping anyone specially the customers.

Great points by both Rey and adlin20
.  I'll hate to see anyone loose their job especially when there are hard to come by, but to quote the saying " sacrifice a few for the many" is sometimes the only option.  I've seen friends and neighbors having to give up their homes and cars cause of some financial crisis there and payments can't be made. Mostly having to move back with parents or family. 
   To adlin20 point about living check to check is so true in most societies and hard lessons to learn.  Emergency Fund is a must and I've drilled in to my kids and anyone who falls into serious hardships. Minimum of 10% of whatever you make will help to soften the pain.. A few less coffees or "cold ones" adds up over months.  It's going to get ugly and hope a better future in a few years, which is eternity to many..  God get us through this with as less pain as possible..  Jose

To Rey point, I believe we will need to cut force and improve production. As hard as it sounds, there is way too many employees that will have to be let go and make the rest more accountable and productive.

Jose, I believe in the 10% rule, we been in the states for the past 20 yrs and had been able to save  enough to be able to retire early. Been smart about our spendings and not trying to live over our means. At 48, I can retire, living confortable in my beautiful island. I may not drive the latest model car or go to restaurants every day, but I don't do it now so I won't miss it. 

Quite often the decision is made on the basis of the severity of the public debt crisis.  If the problem is not severe but looming on the horizon, then you might be able to institute a hiring freeze and reduce the payroll through normal attrition.  The problem with PR (and not limited to PR) is that it lacked the political will to make that decision years ago.  Now, when the crisis is so bad that it required federal intervention, PR can't wait for the retirement of its workforce to trim payrolls.  Furloughs are the only option, combined with an elimination of redundant or inefficient offices and the reduction in the total number of public employees.

Unfortunately, PR lacks a vibrant private-sector economy to pick up the slack, and although the national economy seems to moving ahead slowly, there's little indication that PR will benefit much from broader U.S. economic growth.  There may be a few more tourist dollars to spend, but beyond that, I don't expect to see much economic growth in the near future for Puerto Rico.

Not many private jobs where your job is to chew gum, talk to your friends, talk on Facebook and ask the customers what the F$&@ they are taking your time for.
Other than bad attitude, many do not possess any other useful private sector skills. .

Customer facing goverment employees should be rated by the amount of customers they service per day and the percent of satisfied customers.

They should compete with each other.

ReyP wrote:

Not many private jobs where your job is to chew gum, talk to your friends, talk on Facebook and ask the customers what the F$&@ they are taking your time for.
Other than bad attitude, many do not possess any other useful private sector skills. .

One of the problems is the lack of educated people, rather than  hire a quality person, it is hired based on political favoritism. Add to this the lack of accountability in the workforce and laws that are not progressive and helpful. What incentive will I have to provide a good service when my bonus is guaranteed by law and not by merit? And if you fired me I can sue the employer for bogous reasons. PR needs big changes, some will be a hard pill to swallow and a political suicide.

Very true

I saw something in a DOT office in Texas that should be implemented in the island. They've a sign at the entrance that reads "Your waiting time should be less than 10 minutes, if you are waiting time is longer, please ask to speak to the supervisor"   This will help held employees accountable, keep the manager doing his job supervising and making sure the office runs efficiently. Provide training and counseling to employees.

Agree but the supervisors don't care because they are not accountable either. This is the case also in the private sector of many places like supermarkets for example.

The first think is to get rid of the supervisors, and hire new ones and tell the new ones that the previous ones were fired because the employees were not being held accountable. If they want to keep their job, they will need to snap their wip or they will be gone. If the supervisors don't want to be fired, then they better start firing employees that do not give a hoot.

Then It will work

I'll admit that I'm surprised that customer service is so bad, while unemployment is so high.  Seems to me that if I want to keep my job, I'd work hard at it.  Economics would suggest so, at least.  As far as I can tell, only culture explains this poor work ethic in a condition of high unemployment.

You may be right Warner but I still think it is the managers / supervisors not snapping the whip and demanding good performance. Maybe they are trying to get into somebody's pants, or getting kickbacks to keep the job or they just don't care, but in my book is the managers/supervisors the ones responsible and they need to be held accountable for their employees. Until they are held responsible, it is not possible to hold the employees responsible for their actions.

I could be wrong.

I agree with you, but there must be someone at some level to hold employees (whether manager/supervisor or unskilled worker) accountable.  What I can't explain is why no one, at any level, is demanding any kind of quality work.

As long as they do not perceive sales going down they see no reason to crack the whip

Not only that, but most of the supervisors positions, specially in government, are political appointees, not based on education level or qualifications. Plus the law makes it harder for the employer to fired a person. Look at what the new governor is trying to change, more accountability and reducing bonuses based on law not performance. I am not saying he is right or wrong but the island needs to change their ways. It is a society very politically involved, politics runs everything and influence even private companies.