Dollars and Sense

In one case, a job cut opened a path to advancement. When Knaster came aboard, the print shop had its own severely underutilized "just in case" programmer on staff.

"We were running a parallel IT universe in the print shop and weren't leveraging the considerable resources of our parent IT department," he remembers. "When we eliminated the position within the in-plant, the programmer joined that [parent] department where he's now a superstar. He's busy rather than staring at the wall all day, and we buy back a little of his time on an as-needed basis."