Redundancy: Even the most loyal workers become victims of quest to turn a profit

Two very different imperatives co-exist painfully in the world of work: an Economic Imperative - which dictates that the primary task of every business is to make a profit.

This may at times demand that workers are laid-off. And at other times, when labour is in short supply, it may mean that new workers are hired and existing ones granted more generous salaries.

Yet at no point is the workers' joy or pain ever the essential factor behind business decisions; profit alone is the guiding star.

Then there is a Human Imperative - which leads employees to long for both financial security and respect.

Employees may appreciate that they have been hired by companies primarily because of their contribution to a balance sheet, but this does not invalidate their hope that they may with time come to be perceived in a rounded way, as creatures worthy of sympathy rather than moving parts in a machine - a hope fostered by the fellowship that naturally builds up over time in offices.

It can seem practically and emotionally catastrophic to imagine that an employer, towards whom one has shown loyalty and good humour for years, would one day, with minimal courtesy, for reasons of profit and loss, show one the door, acting with the calm brutality one might display towards a broken lathe or calculator.

These two imperatives - the desire of individuals for security and respect, and the desire of companies for profit - may for long periods coexist without apparent friction.

But what makes anxiety a lingering presence for all wage-dependent workers in a capitalist economy is the knowledge that in any serious choice between the two imperatives, it is the economic one that must always prevail.

A business can move from using coal to natural gas without the neglected energy source walking to the end of a cliff and committing suicide.

But labour has an enduring and, for executives, regrettable habit of meeting attempts to reduce its price or presence with emotion.

It sobs in toilet cubicles, it drinks to ease its worries about the future, it screams if suddenly asked to clear its desk by mid-afternoon and sometimes it chooses death rather than redundancy.

Employers who have made their workers redundant may complain of painful feelings of disloyalty.

They should be fairer on themselves.

They have been chillingly loyal to something, only not to the Human Imperative; they have reserved their impressive loyalty for the unremitting imperatives of business.