More workers are stuck in the same jobs at the same pay

Steven E. Gross, a U.S. compensation expert at New York-based William M. Mercer Consulting, has been getting lots of phone calls lately from clients at large, publicly traded companies. These addled human-resources chiefs have been consumed with one question. If they cut raises to help defray the costs of runaway hikes in health care — an unpopular trade-off they can consider only because of the lousy job market — how much will employee morale suffer?

That calculation is going on all across the business world right now. And, invariably, the answer appears to be: go ahead, grab back what you can from employees. With job growth flat, workers have little choice but to accept what's offered. The coming squeeze is apt to be all the more painful because it comes on the heels of average raises for salaried employees of just 3.6% in 2002 — the smallest hike in 25 years, according to a recent survey of 1, 045 large public companies by compensation consultants Hewitt Associates. For salaried workers who aren't in hot sectors such as utilities, pharmaceuticals, and health care, pay hikes could shrink to as low as 3% in 2003 — if they get any raise at all, predicts Gross.

Call it the sideways labor market, formerly known as the corporate ladder. Rather than climbing, many ambitious workers now find themselves treading water in the same jobs at much the same pay. The combination of stalled pay and spikes in health-care costs, together with decimated retirement accounts, nonexistent promotions, and battered bonuses and options, has left many workers feeling as if they are stuck, if not falling behind. " The budget is so small, you can only do so much, " says Karl Fischer, vice-president for compensation and benefits at Marriott International Inc.

Nowhere are workers getting hit harder than in their health­care costs. Next year's overall premiums — which are charged to employers, then often passed on to workers — are likely to increase an average 15%. That's on top of a 13% jump in 2002, the largest since 1990. Even worse, no relief is in sight, with experts predicting double-digit annual premium hikes for several years.

Those increases have many companies scrambling to rein in outlays. As a result, many are shifting more of the cost, risk, and responsibility for health-care coverage to employees.

Companies are shifting the burden to workers in more subtle ways, too. Typically, a large company picks up about 75% to 80% of the cost of the total premium. Now, many companies are lowering the amount of the premium they pay by 1% to 2% per year. In addition, many companies are asking workers to shoulder higher deductibles and payments for doctor visits. Add it all up, and for many workers, rising health-care costs will cancel out whatever small raises they pocket.

For managers who grew accustomed to the lavish pay packages of the bull market, the new reality is especially harsh. At tech companies such as Intel Corp. and at many Wall Street firms, senior managers who made the bulk of their salary in performance bonuses during the boom have seen their pay fall by as much as 60% or more in recent years. And forget about such perks as stock options Given the pressure to treat options as an expense, experts say companies will now be less generous with them.

What's more, pay-for-performance programs have done away with the era of across-the-board raises. Far more than in the past, companies are using their paltry salary pools to reward stars with relatively meaty raises. " Companies are aggressively managing their compensation dollars toward their best performers, " says Rick Real, a pay consultant at Washington-based Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a human-resources consulting firm. " That means some people will get zero." Still, these days, a 0% raise is a whole lot better than pounding the pavement in search of a new job.

Business Week

Vocabulary

Translation notes

Перевод абсолютной номинативной конструкции

Абсолютная номинативная конструкция имеет довольно широкое распространение в письменной речи и желательно не только уметь узнавать ее в тексте и понимать ее значение, но и активно ею пользоваться при переводе с русского языка на английский. Абсолютная номинативная конструкция характеризуется тем, что содержит свой собственный субъект, своего рода псевдоподлежащее, отличное от подлежащего главной части предложения, причем действие, совершаемое этим субъектом, чаще всего выражается неличными глагольными формами (причастием, инфинитивом). Следует иметь в виду, что причастие being часто опускается и тогда имеет место усеченная форма.

With incentives surging in the U.S. market, Chrysler may have to cut costs even more next year than planned.

With total August sales at a peak, each of the four main manufacturers, managed to achieve record or near-record results in volume terms despite the decline in their market share.

The Treasury predicted a 3 per cent rise in prices, with unemployment increasing s lightly in the next few months.

Абсолютная конструкция в этих примерах вводится предлогом with, что чаще встречается в политических и экономических текстах, но может употребляться и без него, что больше характерно для юридического языка.

Абсолютная конструкция также нередко встречается в художественной и научно-технической литературе.

If the creditor has been offered cash, and requests a bill or a cheque, instead, then the payment is absolute and the right of action on the original contract is lost, the only remedy being to sue on the dishonoured instrument.

The cheque having been dishonoured, and the instalments not having been duly paid, the aggrieved party brought an action to recover the sum due under the agreement.

The study was a nice room, with books lining the walls.

Абсолютная конструкция может основываться не только на причастии, но и на инфинитиве, который нередко обозначает долженствование.

The sellers offered the buyers 5, 000 tons of crude oil, delivery to be made in October.

The buyers requested the sellers to keep them informed of the position of the vessel, the communications to be addressed to their agents.

It was a quiet house now, with only a secretary to see to his meals and to take care of his business affairs.

Отличительной особенностью абсолютной конструкции является то, что она имеет собственное подлежащее, не связанное с подлежащим главной части.

Значение и, следовательно, перевод абсолютной конструкции, как правило, зависит а) от ее места в предложении, б) от контекста.

I. Если данная конструкция стоит в конце предложения или после главной его части, то значение ее сводится к тому, чтобы дать уточняющие сведения или сопутствующие обстоятельства, проиллюстрировать основное утверждение. В этом случае при переводе следует использовать сложносочиненное предложение с союзами а, и, слова причем, так.

The agreement is done in English and in French, both texts being equally valid. — Соглашение совершено на английском и французском языках, причем оба текста имеют одинаковую силу.

П. Если абсолютная конструкция стоит в начале предложения перед основной частью, то она, как правило, выражает причину, время или условия того, что утверждается в главной части, и переводится соответственно сложноподчиненным предложением. Характер подчинения определяется контекстом. Чаще всего используются слова так как. поскольку, учитывая, что, в условиях, когда, иногда хотя и несмотря на. Если встречается в том случае, когда глагол в основной части предложения имеет форму будущего времени.

The professor being ill, the lecture was put off. — Так как профессор был болен, лекция была отложен.

There being a severe storm at the sea, the ship will not leave the port. — Если на море будет сильный шторм, судно не выйдет из порта.

Exercise 1. Translate the following words and phrases into Russian.

• compensation; remuneration; pay; stalled pay; pay hikes; pay settlement; lavish pay packages; compensation in kind; accrued personnel compensation; deferred compensation; by way of compensation; compensation expert;

• trade-off decision; to make a trade-off; trade-off between output growth and income equality; trade-off between unemployment and inflation;

• to rein in outlays; to shoulder a debt; rising health-care costs; to shift the burden to smb; to shift production to low-cost countries

• performance bonuses; performance curve; economic performance; specific performance; non-performance of a contract; performance test of the equipment;

• to tread water; decimated retirement accounts; utilities; to reduce headcount through attrition and early retirement;

• to treat options as an expense; to exercise an option; strike price; to grant restricted stock; put option; call option; stock-related remuneration

Exercise 2.

a) Translate the following into English.

специалисты по работе с персоналом; заплатить компенсацию за что-л.; компенсация за увечье; требовать возмещения убытков; сбывать залежалые товары; проблема выбора между сохранением психологического настроя персонала и сокращением его численности; сокращение затрат (два варианта); пенсионный счет; принять на себя обязательства по задолженности; переложить долговое бремя на кого-либо; выпускать опционы; цена исполнения опциона; честолюбивый сотрудник, «птица высокого полета»; обесценившиеся опционы; фирма по подбору персонала

b) Practice the following words - comprehensive, across-the-board, sweeping and general.

общие для всех правило; комплексное предложение; исчерпывающий отчет; комбинированное страхование; большие перемены; огульные обвинения; всеохватывающий контроль (всех факторов); всестороннее соглашение; общее сокращение тарифов

Exercise 3. Translate the following sentences analyzing the meaning of the Absolute Nominative Construction. Make sure you know the meaning of the underlined words.

1.With U.S. consumer confidence at a seven-year low and recession clouds gathering in Europe, all auto makers are facing tense times. Schrempp, being Schrempp, has set ambitious goals.

2.With capital spending still stagnant, tech companies are still in shrink mode. Cisco Systems Inc. has trimmed its head count by 5%, or 2, 000 workers, in the past year, through attrition and a hiring freeze.

3.With options drowning and bonuses shredded, how will companies reward their stars?

4.Corporate services, such as accounting and travel, are being centralised and there will be renewed emphasis on R& D, with individual managers given responsibility for individual products.

5.Now, with the European Commission preparing to deliver a list of objections within weeks followed by hearings, both companies (Honeywell and General Electric) face a messy — and costly — delay.

6.With much uncertainty surrounding the merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, those big companies that need to buy high powered computer equipment now face straight choice between Sun and IBM. The struggle between these two companies has intensified in the past few weeks, with each trying to move on to the other's turf.

7.No relief is in sight, with experts predicting double-dig it annual (insurance) premium hikes for several years.

8.With ad sales still languishing, Mr Murdoch declared last month that " there arc some hints of a modest upswing in the US advertising market."

9.Goldman Sachs reckons that most Japanese firms break even at around 90% of current sales, with any additional sales dropping quickly through to the bottom line.

10. With fracturing TV audiences moving to the Web and cable, the classic 30-second spot that had made household names of the likes of Mr. Clean and Tide was losing traction.

11. In the Wealth of the Nations, published in 1776, Adam Smith characterised the problem as follows: " The directors of companies being managers of other people's money than their own, it cannot well be expected that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which partners in a private copartner frequently watch over their own."

Exercise 4. Read the text and say what a firm should do (or not do) to avoid personal injury when it decides to dismiss its employees.

U R Sakd

Is there a nice way?

THERE are, Paul Simon once sang, 50 ways to leave your lover. There may be fewer ways to sack your staff, but most are unpleasant — though rarely as nasty as the method chosen last week by Accident Group, a firm that specialises in personal-injury claims, after Amulet, its Luxembourg-based parent, ran out of money. Accident Group's 2, 500 staff received a series of text messages on their mobile phones, telling them to call a number. There, a recorded message from the company's insolvency administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers infonned them that, " All staff who are being retained will be contacted today. If you have not been spoken to you are therefore being made redundant."

This may be the nastiest case of workers being fired by text message. But it is not the first time that firing has been nastier than it need be. Wayne Cascio, a professor of human resources at the University of Colorado-Denver, recalls a technology firm whose staff returned from lunch to find that their security cards no longer worked. Paul Sanchez, of Mercer HR, recalls one firm that invited its staff to a conference in Florida. Briefing packs told some to go to Ballroom A others to Ballroom B. Those in Ballroom A got a presentation on the firm's future; the others were told to go by noon.

Is there a better way? Francis " Tom" Coleman, an American lawyer who recently wrote a book on " ending the employment relationship, " urges bosses to sack staff in private, doing it respectfully and preparing a script of what to say. He says bosses often panic, fearing that dismissed staff may steal valuable information if allowed to linger.

In fact, brutally sacked staff may do more damage than those let go kindly. In America, they may sue for the " intentional infliction of emotional distress." At Accident Group, the staff promptly ransacked the firm's offices and made off with computers and other equipment.

The Economist

Exercise 5. Translate the text paying attention to the underlined words.

Suitable Job for Two Why it is time to split the roles of chairman and CEO

If the events of the past year have taught the world anything about corporate America, it ought to be that the cult of the invincible chief executive, unfettered and unchallenged, is dead.

In their different ways, the experiences of Kenneth Lay, Jack Welch, Sandy Weill and a host of others have forced a rethink of the 1990s orthodoxy that placed the chief executive officer in a unique role at the helm of powerful companies.

The plentiful and painful tales of greed, venality and sheer ineptitude at the top of many US corporations require new means of ensuring proper accountability for CEOs.

Today directors of Walt Disney will get a chance to become the first to take a step that would improve accountability, restore investor confidence and set American boardrooms on a path to a more effective system of governance.

Disney's directors, concerned about the company's poor financial performance for the past few years, will be considering a package of reforms pressed by a number of activist shareholders. By far the most important and far-reaching of them is the proposal to split the roles of the company's chairman and chief executive officer, currently both held, in the standard practice of American boardrooms, by Michael Eisner.

Mr. Eisner should not take the proposal too personally. The case for dividing the two jobs is an overwhelming one — and not just at Disney.

The role of the chairman-CEO undermines the very structure of corporate accountability that a board of directors is supposed to provide. A chairman who also happens to run the company has come to regard the board as part of his own fief

In the absence of a genuinely independent chairman, independent directors lack a leadership figure to whom they can property express their concerns about corporate management.

Opponents of the idea say it would increase tension in boardrooms, weakening the cohesion and unity of purpose of the dynamic company.

But the problem in US companies in the past few years has been precisely the opposite: too little challenge to chief executives. And the British experience — where, for the past decade splitting the two roles has been the norm — has resulted in a significantly improved structure of governance.

Many American CEOs fear that, since the dual role is standard practice at most big US companies, giving up their chairmanship would look like accepting a vote of no confidence in their management of the company.

But it need not be interpreted that way. Good ideas have a way of becoming popular. Leading by example is what really good CEOs are supposed to do.

The Financial Times

Note

Kenneth Lay — former Chairman and CEO of toppled Enron.

Sandy Weill — Citigroup's former CEO.

Jack Welch — General Electric's CEO, now retired.

Translation Notes

Unfettered and unchallenged; plentiful and painful — в данном случае автор использовал аллитерацию. Аллитерация, то есть использование слов, начинающихся с одной и той же буквы, — один из древнейших стилистических средств в английском языке и передается в переводе в тех случаях, когда это целесообразно и возможно по условиям русского языка и когда аллитерация имеет ярко выраженную экспрессивную цель. Аллитерация может передаваться в русском языке словами на одну букву или с помощью стихотворной формы. Аллитерация лежит в основе многих фразеологизмов, но поскольку аллитерация не влияет на смысловую сторону, то, как правило, в переводе фразеологизмов она не передается. Например, safe and sound — жив и невредим, as cool as cucumber — невозмутимый, хладнокровный, fit as a fiddle — в полном порядке. То же самое относится к аллитерации, часто встречающейся в заголовках, таких как Wallowing in Wages, Merger Misery, An Overdose of Options, Basle Bust.

Exercise 6. Read and translate the text. Give a list of words that help the author to support the animalistic image of the corporate world.

Top Managers under Threat as Corporate Jungle

Evolves