Not trying to post this from a political viewpoint.
Could it possibly be the new regulations kicking in over the next year that are associated with Obamacare? I have heard from some people (employees) that their hours are being cut back due to the 30 hour (or <30?) threshold. For every employer, "X" amount of work still has to be preformed for the company, which means they have to look to hire more part-time employees to get the jobs done, if it is this certain regulation is part of the cause. I also know several business owners who have also mentioned the same threshold regulation as the reason they have had to make similar changes; even a few of them admitting that they have a few employees that they do not want to let go that are now working "off the clock" so that they won't have to "officially" count them. I even know of at least one person who split up the business they had into multiple smaller companies (on paper) to avoid the huge increases in projected cash outlay he would have incurred due to the total number of employees his original business had. The projections he received, from multiple audits with different firms he hired, indicated that if he was able to keep the company, as is, profitable, it would not be enough of a profit for the risks associated with him keeping the doors open (the changing economy was also factored into those numbers - for his decision, the new regs were not the only cause, but they were a major factor for him).
Possibly that, along with other factors such as turnover (normal or otherwise), the change in working climate (as someone else mentioned), and of course increasing the profitability of the company (YOY % increase/decrease, etc.), and other factors may be the/part of the reasons for the seemingly mixed messages they appear to be sending out.
As we all know, in business, even when you have a profitable year, you can "lose money". Depending on who is viewing the numbers, even a company that is earning more money than it expends can be labeled a company that is "loosing money" if they are not not only making a profit but are not beating last years numbers, of if they 'only increased by x% instead of xx%' = same label.
In the real world, that just sounds crazy (more money in the bank after all bills paid, yet still "loosing" money?), in the business world, it makes perfect sense. LOL |
