One that didn’t turn out so well

Dear Bob …

Back in February, I had written to you about struggling to maintain my position in the midst of changes brought about by a corporate buy out. Things looked pretty good back then.

And then, they didn’t.

Biggest problem was the numbers, of course. While we made money last year, we didn’t make our targets.

This year, we didn’t even make money.

You could feel the drum start beating at the home office, far in the distance. Every week, there were more questions from corporate about sales, and every week the reports showed a downturn in revenues.

For my part, managing the upgrade to our CRM system went badly. It was nearly six months before everything was working as it should.

More drums from corporate.

Last month, the corporate folks started walking around the office on a regular basis. They didn’t even ask many questions – at least not of me.

Turns out they were subtly interviewing the employees. When they had enough data, the Office Operations Manager and I were both “made redundant.”

While no reasons were given other than job elimination, I figure there were two primary causes:

1. As Napoleon said, “pour encourager les autres.” In other words, when the chips are down, and the performance returns aren’t there, fire a couple of managers, just to drive home the point that you’ve got to make money for the business to stay employed.

2. My own damn fault. I was very loyal to my boss. After he was ousted from the company three months ago, I told too many folks how bitter I was about losing him. This was also true of the OOM as well. A number of employees also voiced such opinions – they still have jobs. But then, see item 1.

Well, as someone pointed out, I had ten good years at the company. I learned a lot, did a lot, made some good friends, and a few enemies. Biggest thing I learned was what I already knew – I don’t do well in corporate environments. The money, benefits and working conditions were all good. My boss shielded me from the corporate wonks – he and I would work out the assignments as peers, and then I’d execute them. When he left, I foundered badly – I couldn’t find the next most necessary business need. I did work, but not much value adding work. Without that shield, the corporate types found me, and hung me out to dry.

So, I’m hitting the bricks. I haven’t been unemployed in over 20 years. At this moment, I feel relieved to be out of corporate-land. But, I’ve got a mortgage, car payments, an artist wife with a sporadic income, etc. I’ll probably, (and hopefully) be in “cube-ville” sometime in the next three or four months.

Unless you can think of alternatives?

– Brick-bound

Dear Bricked …

Sorry to hear it didn’t turn out well. If I can do some inferring, it sounds like the transition that followed the acquisition wasn’t handled well by just about anyone. I’d be very surprised if sales fell apart because all of a sudden your products and services were of no value in the marketplace after decades of success.

My guess is that the acquiring company didn’t do enough to prevent the resentment that’s otherwise inevitable following an acquisition; the local leadership either enjoyed the resentment as validation of their own worth or just didn’t care very much; and the employees, with no leadership from either direction, lamented the loss of what had been a very good work environment.

Just a guess.

It is, by the way, strange that this is how most employees respond to an acquisition. If they resent anyone they should resent the old owner who decided to sell. The buying company is investing its capital in the company and its employees. They should be flattered. It rarely works out that way.

Your assessment of your own departure is probably accurate so far as it goes. The one point I’ll add to it is that if the CRM upgrade went poorly and your name was on it, that was probably an important contributing factor. Opinion: Big project + New owners = Chance to shine.

You gave them a different equation: Challenged project + Disloyal employee = Easy decision.

My advice: From our previous correspondence you’re on the upside of fifty. Look for positions where experience and judgment matters as much or more than technical skill. Also, you succeeded best running a small IT shop in a small business. Approach every small business owner you can to sell yourself and what you can do. Many of these folks will have one sharp person who is, shall we say, in an early career stage, with more enthusiasm than mature business judgment and limited ability to communicate with the owner.

You have a better story to tell in this sort of environment than for a big corporation.

– Bob

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