You want what? You want it when?

My father is a retired skilled tradesman. At the shop where he worked, he had two pictures on his rolling toolbox with three little laughing men on each with the phrase "You want what?" and "You want it when?". We see companies adding more and more work to fewer employees, in what appears to be an experiment to find the breaking point. At what threshold will reducing the crew cause mutiny? How close can we get to this point without finding most of the staff in the fetal position under their desks? Today, I witnessed four people receive 3 months worth of assignments to completee in 3 weeks. They will get it done and move on to second quarter wondering when they will be carpet bombed again. What will it take for employers to see that their employees are more like the residents of London during the Blitzkrieg than an effective team? If you think HR can fight the good fight to fix it, this story is about mid-management HR people. Please someone stand up and show the bosses their posters of the laughing men, maybe the pictures will help them understand.