Work environments were seen purely as a cost and so many facilities are outdated with dated equipment and no desire to shift any resources at addressing this. When market cycles are down, there is a massive negative shift in the work environment as STIP (bonuses) are all but cut which for most employees is a large contribution of their total compensation. Market down cycles result in business cases to justify everything from business trips, to simple equipment acquisitions and a lot of redundant budget churn multiple times a year in a large wasted effort of human capital to try and justify each line item. There has been a large shift in the view of the workforce over the 10+ year tenure with the company and employees are really viewed as a number and a cost to the bottom line. In downturns, workforce cuts are much more common and a lot more impersonal and quite devastating in the way they are executed. The shared 2 way street of loyalty between employee and the company feels a lot more like a one way street and as people were cut, the work/life balance was valued a lot less as the same output was expected from the remaining fewer employees. Top level management shifts have moved away from the life long, employee to a lot more external focused trying to find external leaders and lots of number crunchers who know less about the markets, dealers and customers and simply try and run the company by the numbers. This focus on external talent for top level leadership is causing a log jam as talent internally can't move up and the value of internally diverse, company built careers is lowering. Additionally, the increased focus on outsourcing jobs and contract work out was an alarming trend that was a short term P&L benefit but will have serious long term negatives.
