Downsizing Quotes

• In practice, downsizing is too often about cutting your work force while keeping your business the same, and doing so not by investments in productivity-enhancing technology, but by making people pull 80-hour weeks and bringing in temps to fill the gap.

  James Surowiecki

  Cutting, Technology, Practice

  9 Copy quote

• A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, Business, Educational

  Steve Jobs (0101). “Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs”, p.32, Prabhat Prakashan

  57 Copy quote

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• Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

  George Carlin

  Funny, Money, Work

  George Carlin (2015). “3 x Carlin: An Orgy of George including Brain Droppings, Napalm and Silly Putty, and When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?”, p.206, Hachette UK

  91 Copy quote

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• Downsizing itself is an inevitable part of any creatively destructive economy.

  James Surowiecki

  Insightful, Marketing, Economy

  7 Copy quote

• It's hard to get fired from the government. You have to, like, kill people.

  Wanda Sykes

  Government, People, Comedy

  9 Copy quote

• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Military, War

  Speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 16 Apr. 1953

  181 Copy quote

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• In the days when corporate downsizing was all the rage, Wall Street took a lot of flak for judging companies too harshly and setting the bar for corporate performance so high that executives felt their only option was to slash payrolls.

  James Surowiecki

  Wall, Judging, Bars

  7 Copy quote

• I think re-engineering or restructuring or downsizing or rightsizing or whatever you want to call it, it's basically firing, has gone way too far. Employees, as I've talked to them across the country, feel that they are not respected, they are not valued, they are worried about their jobs. They simply feel that the company is no longer loyal to them. Why should they be loyal to the company, they ask me. Why should I go the extra mile? Why should I care?

  Robert Reich

  Country, Jobs, Business

  15 Copy quote

• Then, in the 1980's, came the paroxysm of downsizing, and the very nature of the corporation was thrown into doubt. In what began almost as a fad and quickly matured into an unshakable habit, companies were 'restructuring,' 'reengineering,' and generally cutting as many jobs as possible, white collar as well as blue . . . The New York Times captured the new corporate order succinctly in 1987, reporting that... 'All such allegiances are viewed as expendable under the new rules. With survival at stake, only market leadership, strong profits and a high stock price can be allowed to matter'.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Strong, Jobs, New York

  13 Copy quote

• The corporate killer downsizing is directly responsive to what the mutual funds have wanted.

  Jim Cramer

  Killers, Mutual Fund, Economy

  7 Copy quote

• 'Dilbert' became popular during the downsizing of the '90s, and job security was a major theme of the strip.

  Scott Adams

  Jobs, Dilbert, Theme

  7 Copy quote

• Much of what is called investment is actually nothing more than mergers and acquisitions, and of course mergers and acquisitions are generally accompanied by downsizing.

  Susan George

  Acquisition, Mergers, Investment

  7 Copy quote

• Here's the thing, you just have to drive a lot faster, and if you don't get there, we're both fired.

  Bill Murray

  Faster, Ifs

  Interview with Jessica Lee Jernigan, jessicaleejernigan.typepad.com. August 9, 2004.

  8 Copy quote

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• If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

  Vince Lombardi

  Motivational, Positive, Graduation

  Vince Lombardi (2012). “What it Takes to be Number One”, p.92, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• The real literary editors have mostly been fired. Those that remain are all 'bottom line' editors; everything depends on the money.

  Lawrence Ferlinghetti

  Real, Editors, Lines

  8 Copy quote

• A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Leadership, Determination, Optimistic

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Homer A. Jack (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi”, p.55, Courier Corporation

  60 Copy quote

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• My mother always wanted me to be glamorous. When I thought about that, it really fired me up, and once I lost all those pounds, I started to feel really good about myself.

  Etta James

  Mother, Pounds, Lost

  9 Copy quote

• I was fired from my television job, simple as that. Well, downsized, really, a classic 1990s situation.

  Lee Child

  Jobs, Simple, Television

  8 Copy quote

• We should because when coaches get fired, the players have a lot to do with it.

  Allen Iverson

  Basketball, Player, Should

  Inside Hoops Interview, www.insidehoops.com. February 14, 2004.

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• Coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired.

  Lou Holtz

  Inspirational, Motivational, Sports

  9 Copy quote

• The British regulatory system was revised, so that bigger profits were encouraged, which removed the option of big spending on programming. Quality just fell off a cliff, and all the old hands either left or were fired for being too expensive.

  Lee Child

  Hands, Quality, Cliffs

  7 Copy quote

• Synaptic summation is the technical term used in neurophysiology for those instances in which some neuron C is fired only by a combination of neurons A and B.

  Gregory Bateson

  Neurons, Used, Combination

  8 Copy quote

• After I was fired from Disney, I did some of the worst movies ever made...

  Tommy Kirk

  Made, Worst, Worst Movie

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Eventually, I became involved with somebody and I was fired.

  Tommy Kirk

  Involved

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• When I got the script for Memento, I read it and I got killed off on page one and I fired my agent.

  Joe Pantoliano

  Agents, Pages, Scripts

  55 Copy quote