What a great idea; give them a pay raise, then charge more for parkingWhat a great idea; give them a pay raise, then charge more for parking

To the Editor:

Imagine my surprise when I read Wal-Mart stores recently experienced a year-to-year decline in sales. This probably hurt employee morale and made shareholders nervous. But as a regular Wal-Mart shopper, I have a revenue-producing suggestion for Wal-Mart.

Increase employee morale by giving them a small raise. Nothing overly generous, just enough to give employees a morale boost and sense of respect. Obviously, this decreases revenues, but we are not done.

Wait a few days while people enjoy themselves (and hopefully work harder as a result), then announce that employees must pay $300/year to park in the Wal-Mart parking lot. If planned correctly, this will more than make up for the token raises.

My scheme is guaranteed to work! Where else can employees park? The closest public space is the Community Center at the opposite end of East State Street. With no practical alternatives, employees will be forced to accept their pay reduction via slight of hand.

Just remember not to call it a pay reduction and to hike the fee whenever revenues dip. Employees may grumble and productivity may suffer, but that will just give you an excuse to enact more fees! Pure genius, eh?

Greg Springer
Wood Road
Albany

Editor's note: Ohio University reportedly is considering charging employees to park in university parking lots.

REPLY TO THIS COMMENT

Hondro

Because when reading this "great idea" it's really hard not to laugh. Seriously, that it quite possibly the dumbest idea I have ever heard. I mean did you put any thought into it at all? How exactly does either the token raise or the payed parking have ANYTHING to do with year-to-year sales?? The best part is when you say to, "Wait a few days while people enjoy themselves (and hopefully work harder as a result)"...are you kidding? You gotta be joking. I'd love to spend time poking holes in your "great idea", or "guaranteed scheme" as it were...but it pretty much does that on it's own. Thanks for the laughs! And I would love to see some feedback here from actual Wal-Mart employees, since perhaps they are the only ones who will truly appreciate the wisdom of getting a small raise that will be essentially nullified when they are then asked to bend over and grab their ankles and pay to park at work. But at least they'll have that "sense of respect" and enjoy themselves for a few days, right? Editor's note: yes, this was meant to be a joke. He's using the pretend parking plan for Wal-Mart, which doesn't really exist, in order to satirize and criticize a similar plan being discussed at OU. TS

medical21

This is why the country is in the shape it's in! No one cares about the hard working man. It is ran by people like you who sit around on your behinds thinking up devious ways to take more from people who actually work for a living. Get A Life! Editor's note: The letter wasn't serious; he concocted a hypothetical situation using Wal-Mart as an example, in order to make a point about such a proposal at OU. TS

Well, I guess ya got me. I suppose that I am in fact the moron for not being able to see through the not so subtle satire here. But in my defense, if you've lived in Athens long enough, you wouldn't put it past some yokel to conceive of such things and be deadly serious about such a proposal. So I'll go ahead and play devil's advocate for the other side of the issue. It sounds like a "great idea" to me because the employees would undoubtedly resort to increased carpooling in order to divide the cost of the parking permits. This would also save money on gas, and result in decreased fuel emissions, which would be good for the environment. It would also mean less vehicles on the road, which would lead to less traffic congestion and make for a more enjoyable commute, which would serve as a morale boost and lead to increased productivity and revenues. I think that more businesses should consider efforts such as this to positively impact the environment, use less resources, and boost employees' morale and productivity. It's a win-win scenario.

Greg Springer

That would work in an ideal world, but realistically the fee will not change people's behaviors. It will just take money away from them. However, if OU really wants to help the environment and cut down on traffic they should make the fee $1,500/year. That would change people's behaviors.

Student

The above two posters didn't really get that this was meant as a jab towards OU, but I did. To be honest I get what you are saying, that its not really ideal to have to make people pay to park where they have to be in order to work, but really its not an unheard of concept. The reality is that the campus area is an extremely population dense place. Very much more so than the surrounding areas where most employees live. Do you think that the millions working in Manhattan every year don't have to pay to park somewhere if they choose to drive in? I know parking there is more like 300 a month rather than a year. Additionally, if you would prefer, try living on campus and having to pay to park at your own home! I imagine many of you can't fathom having to pay to park in your own driveway, or to have to move your car so that your driveway you are paying to park in can be resold to someone else for athletic event parking...

You live on campus. You don't NEED a car and that is why you are being charged to park... it is a luxury not a necessity. People in big cities pay because the commodity is scarce. Last time I checked this isn't Manhattan and there are sufficient parking spaces already available for OU employees. I also note that rents in NYC are sky high. So, shouldn't OU students pay $2,500/month for their dorm rooms? It would be fair because that is the way it is in Manhattan. Right?

Voice of reason

I have recently moved back to Athens after working in North Eastern Ohio at a private university. I paid $36 a month to park in a lot and some staff paid up to $100 a month to park in the premium lots. The fees went to maintaining maintenance and security for the lots and we were offered a shuttle service to our work area if we were assigned a lot that was too far to walk. There are alternatives to pay parking at work such as park and ride, car pooling, taxi, bus ect. It sucks that they have to charge but most universities do now and it looks like OU may be joining the year 2010 at least in this arena.

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What a great idea; give them a pay raise, then charge more for parking

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