The Company Men
Economic crisis affects all sectors of the economy, households, factories and even the offices. The movie “The Company Men” is an American drama that revolves around employees of a shipbuilding company corporation Global Transportation Systems (GTX). The main characters featured in the movie Kevin Costner as Jack Dolan , Ben Affleck as Bobby Walker, Tommy Lee Jones as Gene McClary and Chris Cooper as Phil Woodward. The director of the movie John Wells uses the movie to show how recession results to the company management to face a tough situation on handling its employees laying off some of its employees. The movie shows how the company lacks fairness in laying off employees where the top management is selfish and being favored.
GTX a public held shipbuilding company is downscaled as a result of an economic recession. Among the employees laid off is Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck). Walker is a sales manager for GTX who was receiving a six-figure salary, has a wife, and two children. Despite getting the outplacement services offered to him, Walker gradually loses his luxurious life and he accepts the fate. Just like Bobby, Phil Woodward an employee for the company for 30 years he is also laid off. He started low climbing the ranks to the current position. Sally tries advocating for Woodward’s rehiring but the decision stills stand. The human resource manager is unable to rehire Woodward since he was also fired. Phil had hopes in his job resulting to him being affected extremely hard by the decision. In addition, he is older compared to other laid off employees, his companions believe that it will be hard for him to secure another job. The situation forces Woodward to conspire with his wife to keep the firing secret issue to their neighbors but finally Woodward commits suicide. In brief, the decision of him committing suicide arises from the possibility of Woodward securing another job and the embarrassment that he will not be able to cater for the family needs.
Further, McClary is not happy with the decision of his company laying off employees when it had an alternative option of suspending expansion to survive the recession. McClary guilt and sympathy for the fired employees forces him to quit his current job at GTX. He uses his accumulated wealth to start his own business. The first person he hires is Bobby Walker one of the laid off employees.
The movie gives an overview of what the 2008 recession brought to the working class and the aftermath which resulted to unemployment and even death. The drama addresses the hardships associated with losing a job that one has hopes and capturing the details on how the economic recession can affect businesses. Moreover, the drama addresses the desperate and unfair methods which businesses use to survive the recession times showing how they can really affect their employers. The company favored the top management at the expense of firing longtime employees it had an option to halting its expansion rather than firing employees. In short, decisions that companies can affect the livelihood of its stakeholders thus the need of considering their stakeholders.
It is empathetic on how people like Bobby and Jack faced humiliation after losing their job. The embarrassment forces people like Phil to the extremes. Firing employees threatens family stability, wreck relationships with children and even cause depression that lead to death. The movie clearly addresses the hardships people go through after being laid off. Besides, the movie observes how the shame after unemployment kills a person bit by bit. Therefore, people without work should reframe their lives despite the challenges they face and revise their priorities. Further, people should stop looking long at the closed door and know that when one door closes the other door opens.
In conclusion, it is important for the hard-working Americans to have a positive mind during such hard times. They need to know that there are positive transformations engendered by unemployment despite the situation they are facing. Finally, they should know that the scourge of hard economic times and unemployment is here to stay and they need to be positive about the situation.