I don't know about adequate funds - or not - but I haven't seen any "gutting" of the workforce of SS. We're looking at "changes" in workforce maybe in a couple of percent rage. By the way, I cut my department by 20% and productivity went up. Way up.
Did you see the news reporting on SS staffing cuts today? Does not sound good at all.
20% is a little more than the Jack Welch bottom 10% model, but still doable in a large organization. In a 60k plus organization, i think one would find a pretty target rich environment.
I moved mine to the Netherlands and productivity went up more than the higher salary and benefits, shorter work week and longer vacations. That was a professional organization. Clerical jobs and other low level work went to Poland and India.
When I ran a high tech electro optical production company, we found that poor workers were 5% of the problem and poor processes and procedures were 95% of the problem. Once we fixed the processes and procedures, we needed 40% fewer people to produce 50% more product. The remaining workers were so much happier working in an efficient company.
Sure, you can cut people from an organization and sometimes get better performance. Doing that, however, requires a close and informed look at the people and understanding of the tasks that they do. It requires understanding of the training time for replacements and the existing pipeline for talent to replace the employees that eventually leave the organization of their own accord.
