Dear Prospective Employees

27Sep/102

Dear Prospective Employees

Inspired by this post here. h/t Vermontaigne

A Note to Prospective Employees -

We here at SunAnt are very appreciative of your interest in working for our firm. We really are.

Unfortunately, whereas in normal economic times, our rapid growth would mean adding additional personnel, for now we, the management and ownership of SunAnt, are just going to work longer hours. This decision has zero to do with you (many of whom are no doubt stellar talents and who in normal economic times we would be more than happy to hire). Rather, our decision is simply one of what is most prudent for our small business.

It may sound weird, but there is a degree of growth which makes sense and a degree of growth that does not. You see, when a business hits a certain level of gross sales, it is not unusual to respond by adding additional personnel to handle additional business. But for the time being we have decided that each partner will work 60 hours per week apiece rather than add an additional employee - and purposefully manage our growth so as not to grow so rapidly that we must hire another employee. This is a strategic decision. Because when growing a business, one has to think about profitability. And it may sound weird, but in some cases a business can be more profitable with fewer sales! Think about it. It is real similar to someone being offered a job for say 91k, but asking the offerer to instead offer them less - let's say 89k per annum, so as to avoid the AMT! Again, this has nothing to do with you, per se, but rather with the business environment. While we have the audacity to hope for better economic times, and while we hope for a change in our government, we are not confident that the economy is in fact recovering. Further, we are plagued with uncertainty in terms of what the federal government might decide to do next.

In days of yore, it was to be expected that the government (full of lawyers and bureaucrats as it is - nary having held a private sector job or managed a business) would commit flagrant boneheaded acts that would make it more difficult for businesses to succeed. But this is perhaps the first time in American history in which the private sector finds itself competing directly with an openly hostile government. That is, the government we are now saddled with is not only ignorant, but aggressively and purposefully anti-business. It is unnecessary and a waste of limited resources to go too far into why government is hostile to business. Suffice to say, there is work to be done - and pointing out the obvious conflict between Marxist philosophy and private job creation (enterprise) is best left to those who most obviously know best (bureaucrats and lawyers and James Wolcott) and have access to limitless resources!

Anyway, thanks for checking in with us. We really do appreciate it. And best of luck to you.

Regretfully,

The Management