Day 291 – New Beginnings

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October 17, 2016 – One can look at changes as endings, or as new beginnings. It’s that glass half-empty vs half-full thing. And, although new beginnings are sometimes nerve wracking, they are also exciting, they are invigorating, they offer the potential of stepping up to the next level and represent an opportunity to launch yourself again.

It sucks when you have vision and see opportunities for growth in profit where you work, when you’ve spent ten years repeatedly demonstrating that fact, to suddenly be caught up in the fallout from an overly top-heavy management layer of people with ego-puffing titles but no accompanying leadership skills. To be told that the company is undergoing business restructuring, and that your position is being eliminated as a result, that you appear to be the first casualty of that restructuring process, it’s a challenging pill to swallow.

But it sucks more to be stuck at a place of business that has a lack of vision and leadership, a place with no inspiration coming from the top levels anymore, a place that has become overly involved in the activity of corporate navel gazing. I suppose it’s better to be thrown off of a floundering ship than to slowly sink with it.

Even though the end was abrupt, it wasn’t really. The beginning of the end has been looming in the shadows for some time, and he was already engaged a little bit in looking towards new horizons because he was witnessing increasing chaos. It’s interesting how one can be disillusioned with one’s employment but still stay loyal somehow.

In reality it was likely that the loyalty that kept him there longer than perhaps he should have stayed, loyalty to the clients, the people to which he provided support, training, and information, the network he’d built through the years, across the projects he was involved in.

Maybe it’s human nature to want to maintain stability, maybe we don’t want to believe that something we’ve invested heavily in is coming to an end, but it’s good to always look forward to the next great adventure.

It’s also interesting how it can sting when the decision process isn’t completely your own. You end up where you want to be, where you knew you were going to go – out the door – but you weren’t afforded the opportunity to make the choice yourself, you didn’t get to get around to it on your own.

However, there is an upside to being let go without grounds for dismissal, for “corporate restructuring reasons”. A little bit of wrangling, a little bit of negotiation, because you simply can’t let someone go without cause and not incur some repercussion.

And though he couldn’t see it immediately, it was actually a beneficial happening, as I thought it would be. The company has no obvious vision anymore, it was losing its focus, its founder pulling back towards retirement and leaving it in the hands of his successors, but they weren’t doing well by it, a little company trying to act big, but not pulling it off well. To others it seems to be flailing, but in no generally discernible direction, many clients are loyal to him, not to his employer. There has been speculation for some time that the company is for sale, a new “manager”, a sales rep, on board, but clearly with no understanding or ability about people- or project-management. Another example of Peter’s Principle in action, except that as I understand it from others, lacking competency at the earlier role as well. Neither he, nor the others at the upper level, seemed to care a whit about true leadership – calling yourself a leader doesn’t make you one. So perhaps that’s the reason for the lack of direction, the lack of inventory, the lack of vision in going after new business and better profit margins. When poorly suited for a position, some tend to detract from others instead of working on themselves – deflection – all too common (just look to our southern neighbour’s current election for a magnificent example).

At the end of the day though, it really doesn’t matter anymore, because it’s done.

The thing about leaving a company, regardless of the machinations behind the exit, is that the rumour mill tends to kick into immediate high gear. Management allowed other staff to believe he quit, and told others outside of the company that he’d been let go “….because he didn’t want to come to work anymore”. No consistency in messaging, no surprise really, not given the players.

And people he’d known for a long time, even one I mistakenly thought of as his friend, parroted the fabrications.

Seriously?

Nice.

Run around an international trade show spreading that little falsehood.

Malicious?

Perhaps.

Misinformed and furthering false information that someone else fed to you maliciously?

Also possible.

Regardless, it’s shitty, small-minded, and demonstrates a serious lack of class. Blatant character assassination is the realm of the unconfident, and it really says more about the individual making false statements than it ever does about the absent and defenceless target.

It’s disappointingly unprofessional.

He showed nothing but distinction and class in the entire process, he never once said a negative thing about his former employer and, when clients asked what happened, his response remained true “Business restructuring, they eliminated my position.” When pressed further his response was “You would have to ask management.”

Classy.

Not me; I have no compunction about drawing critical attention to their unacceptable behaviour, for the lack of respect, for small-minded gossip by the clinically insecure. That’s my prerogative. I am critically objective, but it didn’t take a critical thinker to arrive at the conclusion that others were truly shitty, when they didn’t have to be, to someone I care deeply about. I have the right to make my own statement on the churlish actions of those three puerile amigos, and of some of their little sidekicks. Like being angry that they had the audacity to tell him he was inconveniencing the company when he said he’d take his holidays before the two month notice ended – they assumed he’d just get paid out. “He” was inconveniencing “them”! So yes, I’m irritated, and have been for the past two months during which he was treated poorly, and I finally feel like saying so. Why make someone stick around for eight weeks, just to treat him terribly? Because, when someone has worked for and/or with you, you can behave better than that when they leave. You can try to act like responsible adults, and not mean-spirited little boys. You can try to be something other than children knocking others down in a self-centred attempt at making yourself look better, which always does the complete opposite in the eyes of intelligent people.

You could at least can try to act like professionals.

But, on the upside, he is extremely well known and highly respected in his field, people from all over the continent called him up as soon as they found out he was moving on, to verify the information, to express disbelief at the lack of logic or foresight on the company’s part, and a number even offered him positions, or offered to create positions for him due to the value he represents.

Because when you are good at what you do, and when you are known for your skills, that speaks for itself, and it isn’t long before you are negotiating a new position with a company you have wanted to work with for so long. A company that offered you a position five years ago, and which you were going to take, but your present company fought back hard to keep you. How cool to get a second opportunity to join that team, a real team, and restart the momentum your “leaders” demotivated you on. How cool that this new employer was so excited at your availability that they created a new position for you, in an area that is your specialty, in a new Division, that they are launching this week.

Honestly, I would have been happier had he taken a couple of months off to just “be”, he was out of work for exactly five days. Sometimes it’s good to just take some down time, there was no panic for a job, between the severance and the fact that in two months we will be completely clear of all personal debt, we were more than OK to have one of us unemployed for awhile. He could have ticked a few more things of that honey-do list for me.

But I get it, when an opportunity such as the one he was offered comes up, again, you evaluate, think, negotiate upwards, and go for it, because you get to be in on something from the ground floor, and you get to build it, and you might never get a third chance at this brass ring. So, as a result, he is now excitedly looking forward to working with an exceptionally professional team, with a highly profitable company, and engaging in projects that take his skills to the next level. The loss of one position opened the door to a better one; his move has not been lateral, it is definitely upwards.

I’ve been lucky enough to have had one or two really great leaders to inspire me in my life, they knew how to create a team; life is more engaging when one feels to be a contributing member of a successful team and not just “going to work”. How wonderful to look forward to being inspired, and to experiencing a great team atmosphere.

And I receive a benefit to his change in employment; for me, it was a little blessing, I never enjoyed that Christmas party; it was an annual event that I looked forward to with a complete lack of anticipation. The interesting thing about going to social events where people drink with abandon, is that you learn a lot about them because, when people drink without thought, their personal character tends to be magnified and you have an opportunity to see who they really are if they are hiding behind a mask of any sort. I’m happy to be a social introvert, but having to attend something I don’t want to is all that much worse when I can find little in common with virtually anyone there, except the person I am with. I’d do my spousal duty and go, but rarely could I find a conversation about things going on in the world, and if I could, there was often a lack of open mindedness about debate over differing opinions. There was an internal culture that frowned on differing opinions; if you think differently, you must be different, and they don’t like different, and I was very different – no babies in my life, an atheist, three science degrees, challenging of narrow or poorly informed views, not interested in petty gossip, more interested in world affairs that in getting plastered at a party – so trying to find a conversation was like eating razor blades.

I’m looking forward to meeting some interesting professionals with a wider world view. So I come out ahead too 🙂

Change is awesome!