Downgrading
In the jargon of the sociology of work, a procedure by employers and other institutions is called downgrading ( English for “downgrading”, “dequalification”) , which consists in assigning employees on a large scale to such tasks and activities that these employees are under-demanding. In addition, downgrading can also consist of declaring an activity as less important (see also: job evaluation , job evaluation ), which also results in a devaluation of the employees who do it.
The expression came into the German language at the latest with Friedrich Pollock's study Automation (1956), which addressed the question of what becomes of human labor in the age of automation . Like Helmut Schelsky a little later , Pollock assumed that automation would bring at least parts of the workforce to a lower professional and social level.
The opposite terms are upgrading and upskilling .
Application examples for language usage
Large-scale downgrading as a corporate practice
In November 2014 the employers' association LGAD negotiated a new pay structure for the service industry in Bavaria with the service union Verdi . Among other things, this lifted the unequal treatment of workers and employees, women and men, younger and older people. When the pharmaceutical wholesalers then redrafted the definitions of certain activities in their industry (picking activities and positions as clerks were classified as activities without special qualifications) and reduced the salaries of a large number of their employees, works councils and the trade union interpreted this procedure as a massive "downgrading" .
Inappropriate employment of academics
"Downgrading" is also occasionally mentioned when academics - especially humanities, social and educational scientists - are employed below the level they are aiming for ( overqualification ). According to a study by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research in 2007, two thirds of the surveyed graduates of master’s degree programs in Germany found their position to be inadequate 1½ years after starting their careers.
Other meanings
More recently, the terms downgrading and downshifting have also been used to refer to a step down the corporate ladder that professionals do of their own accord, e.g. B. to correct a promotion that was disadvantageous for them or to improve quality of life .
In press parlance and in modern business jargon, the expression is also used simply as a synonym for “downgrading”; it then appears in the most varied of contexts.
In the IT sector, there is the term downgrade for the replacement of software with an older version of the same.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Downgrade. In: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English . Retrieved July 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Friedrich Pollock: Automation: Materials for assessing the economic and social consequences . European Publishing House, Frankfurt / M. 1956, p. 105 .
- ↑ Helmut Schelsky: The social consequences of automation . Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1957.
- ↑ Lothar Klein: Wholesalers downgrade employees. (No longer available online.) March 2, 2016, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 12, 2017 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Constantin Gillies: When the résumé becomes a curse. In: The world. January 19, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Cornelia Voß: Appropriately employed? (PDF) p. 3 , accessed on July 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Downgrading: career limbo, but right. In: karrierebibel.de. Retrieved July 12, 2017 . and career: downgrade is the new upgrade. In: erdbeerlounge.de. March 31, 2016, accessed July 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Examples: Downgrading. In: cash.ch. Retrieved July 13, 2017 . ; The rights of shareholders when delisting and downgrading listed companies. In: urbs.de. Retrieved July 13, 2017 . ; Gentrification and downgrading of the Cologne districts. In: amg-koeln.de. Retrieved July 13, 2017 .
