Attitude adjustment.

• Author: Kristie, James
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE

WHEN I FIRST GOT INTO the business world in the 1970s, it seemed as if companies were proud of the number of people they employed. In their letter to shareholders in the annual report, chairmen would routinely cite the size of the company's workforce with the same sense of accomplishment as the amount of the firm's revenues and the scope of its operations.

That was then. Now what's being conveyed to the market is something very different. It's a pride in how few people companies need on their payroll--or, even more disturbing, want to have working for them.

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It seems as if American corporations have lost a sense of themselves as employers.

I write this note as 2005 is coming to a close. Being of a fundamentally optimistic nature, I normally put concerns aside at this time of season and view the year ahead with anticipation of good things to come. That's the businessman in me. As a father of two children who are soon to be entering the working world, I have concerns that are not easy to tamp down. I worry about this world they are going into. Will it be one that offers young people the promise of good jobs? Jobs that will allow them to support themselves and, eventually, a family? A working world that believes in taking care of its employees with benefits and with care for their health and welfare? A working world that sees and treats its workers as assets and not expenses--or, heartlessly, liabilities?

It's sad to see companies so often get rewarded by the market when they announce major workforce reductions and other ruthless treatment of their self-styled "human resources." I suggest that corporate leadership must stop seeing the...