High on the Hog

Trim Rite is coming. Trim Rite is coming to save the day. At least that is the story. Freeport's economic woes won't be solved by a pork processing plant. We will once again pay more by another company paying less...taxes, set-up fees without having to make a long-ter, commitment to the community. We'll put in the sewer lines, the power cables, internet cables, and roads to service the company. We're promised 200 new jobs. Will there be any concessions that the employees health care providers will be contracted to be local. How many children will be going to school here? Will there be new residents moving to the area or will the employees travel from Sterling and Rockford and then take their hard-earned money back to their malls and grocery stores and pay property taxes to their communities?

Meanwhile we hear the drip...drip...drip... of our solid citizens being let go by other local employers. A few this week from Honeywell. A few next week from Newell. A couple from Cub Food. It is like the old adage about how do you boil a frog... you slowly raise the temperature and the frog keeps adjusting until eventually the heat is high enough that the frog cooks. The employment temperature in our community is slowly rising and many in the community, at least those that haven't bailed out, are starting to sense the change, but until they are affected they don't get out of the boiling water.

Just read the letter from a Honeywell customer to get a feel for the outside world's view of one of our jewels of industry in Freeport. If no one is around to lead it is impossible to have full accountability, prompt decision-making, nor a highly motivated workforce. Management by email just doesn't cut it. Drip...drip...drip... an account here, an account there, and then we're left to wonder, "What went wrong?" The answers are there, but there isn't anyone to let the people who feel an obligation to the company and to the community that they are valuable, important to the company and are vital to the success of not just making switches or whatever, but that they are part of the whole process. When an integral part doesn't feel so integral or one is constantly looking over one's shoulder for the grim reaper of HR it is impossible to do quality work.

Drip...drip...drip.....