Anyone Wanting to Quit, I Will Understand

An engineer from Ciego de Ávila recently shared a concerning statement she overheard at her workplace, which she interpreted as a troubling indicator of her company's situation. Diana Cecilia Martínez recounted that someone associated with the organization remarked, "Anyone wanting to quit, I will understand."

“When you hear that, it means what’s coming is simply...,” Diana added, leaving the sentence unfinished but the message crystal clear during an interview with Tania Costa.

The catalyst for this insinuation is a series of unpaid debts that are strangling the company. The client entity responsible for paying them for their projects lacks funds, forcing Diana's superiors to employ pressure tactics to get paid: "Many times, our bosses have said, 'No, until you give me an invoice, I won't hand over the project.'"

Despite the challenges, Diana describes her company as one of the few still holding on. "Thank God, my company is one of the most efficient still standing in Ciego de Ávila. We have excellent leaders," she stated, adding that these managers are highly sought after. "They are sought under the table, under a rock. Unfortunately, it's become difficult for everyone."

Due to a fuel shortage, employees can only work two days a week. "I go to work on Mondays and Thursdays, for instance, because we can't work more due to the fuel issue," explained Diana, whose job involves field visits to inspect sites.

Adding to this limitation is an electricity crisis in Ciego de Ávila, where power outages can last up to 19 or 20 hours daily in non-priority circuits. Diana experienced this firsthand on a recent Monday: "I was at work, and the power came back at my house at 10 in the morning. I told my boss, 'Look, I have to leave because if you don't get ahead, you won't achieve anything.'

The window of electricity at her home is only an hour or an hour and a half, during which she has to catch up on work she can't do in the office. And this isn't just her problem: "Multiply me by 10 or 20, that's how many workers we have here. Productive ones. I'm talking about the productive department, not human resources, not consumers, not legal. I'm talking about the productive side, the one that generates capital."

Diana's fear has a concrete and close precedent: the sugar project company under the Ministry of Sugar where her 64-year-old father worked closed after accumulating four months of unpaid wages. "There, they said it's over," she recalled. In her case, the hint comes "between the lines," but the message is the same.

This pattern isn't isolated. According to data from the Cuban government, after reviewing 869 state entities with losses, they decided to partially or completely shut down 65. Meanwhile, the sugar sector is experiencing a historic crisis: the 2024/2025 harvest did not exceed 150,000 tons of sugar, the worst result in over a century.

The government approved Decree 138/2025 on salary decentralization, allowing each company to design its own payment system linked to productivity. Diana mentions this with cautious optimism: in theory, it allows for salary increases, but the performance indicators required are unattainable without electricity and fuel. Her current salary is 5,200 pesos monthly, in a province where a carton of eggs in private enterprises costs 3,600 pesos.