October, year 3
“What’s this meeting about?” I heard someone asking as I was trying to concentrate on a particularly tough bit of coding.
“No idea. They just sent out an e-mail that we should all meet in the conference room right now,” came the reply as two people went by, pushing their chairs. It was funny how we had this wonderful new office space and no one wanted to actually sit at the conference table. Everyone brought in their own chair so they could avoid sitting next to leadership, who usually clustered together on one side of the room.
I read the e-mail about the meeting and knew that I better get going if I was going to get a seat at the table near the end. Most of the time, no one was there, but no sense taking chances. Alison was near that spot, so I sat next to her. “What’s this all about?” I asked, leaning close to her.
She smiled, looking at me seductively. “It’s about me. All the best meetings are,” she whispered, touching my leg under the table. Her touchy-feely behavior had returned since she started dating another guy. Maybe someday I’ll tell her I know about him. He had Tuesday night while all the other days seemed to be mine. Sticking my head in the sand and ignoring the situation was working, so I was not about to rock the boat.
In a few moments, the New Business guy came in and sat next to the man from Nevada. They talked softly, laughed, and then gave each other a high five before returning to a more professional manner. We had some real winners in that position in the last nine months; however, this guy was bringing in the associations. My guess was they got a new one and that Alison was going to be the exec.
When it was the exact minute we were all supposed to be there, the man from Nevada stood and looked over the crowd. We had indeed grown since moving to the new office. “I’d like to thank you all for taking a few moments out of your busy days to hear some very exciting news. I’m going to flip it over to New Business for an update.” He patted the guy on the back and then sat down.
“Exciting is right,” the guy said, standing quickly. He was real young and thin but always wore perfectly fitting suits. “I wanted to tell you all that we really reeled in a big one this time.” He arched his back and pretended to struggle with an imaginary fishing rod. “Huge is more like it.” He pranced around the room and gave a high five to each of those in leadership. The cluster was whipping itself into a frenzy. While this was going on, most of the staff were hiding silly grins at the bizarre show.
He continued. “Normally, we have teams work on multiple accounts.” The guy slammed his hand down on the table. “Not this time! This group will have five dedicated employees.” He held up his hand with his fingers spread out quite unnaturally. “You heard me, five.” People actually started clapping. “Alison, will you tell them about your new team?”
Alison put on her glasses and stood up. “Sure,” she said, trying to sound excited. “I will be the account manager. There will be an administrative director, an administrative assistant, and a dedicated meeting manager.”
“But that’s only four,” the New Business guy said, looking confused with his hands on his hips. “Is there someone else?”
Alison nodded.
“Well, tell us all about this other person.”
It was obvious that she really did not like playing along with this strangeness. “There will be an external executive director.”
The man from Nevada stood. “This group was very reluctant to completely sever its ties with the former way it was being managed. Being flexible, we picked up on the idea to keep this person in place to provide a smooth transition and to provide a depth of industry knowledge not available internally.”
New Business guy clapped loudly and pointed to Alison. “This team’s associates will be able to continue offering this company’s unparalleled brand of service while following the guidance of a truly excellent business leader.”
One of the other execs spoke up, asking, “What about the associations that Alison is managing now?”
“Nell and Jimmy will stay on those clients, and a new exec will be hired,” the newest HR lady said. She started a week ago when the other one decided to go back to turning magic tricks. “This will give our clients the feeling of continuity. Alison is not going anywhere, and her boards know it.”
“So, the rest of Alison’s team on the new account will be new hires?” the same exec asked as a follow-up question.
“The positions will be posted internally and filled by new people if needed. We realize that finding or replacing this many associates will be a challenge. However, it’s a good one to have,” HR said, trying to keep everyone positive. “As we bring in more groups like this, we will remain nimble in how we do business.”
The last time we had a discussion like this was right before we moved and all the administrative assistants were given a choice to become unemployed or to join a new work unit called Core Care that focused on data entry. It took a long time to recover from a mass exodus of those who thought it was beneath them or to replace those who did take the deal but couldn’t handle the learning curve. Did anyone else see these poor patterns of management? Guess not.
For the next hour, we discussed the particulars about the new group and what it represented. Charts and graphs were shown about how much of the industry they represented, the plans to recruit more members, and how our company fit into the whole scheme of things. This group was actually pretty complex and had a wide range of members, some of whom I’d actually heard of outside of work. Often we manage clients made of mom-and-pop companies that are struggling and need the help offered by their association. This seemed more like the rich getting richer type of all-boys club.
“So, congratulations,” I said, standing outside of Alison’s office.
She waved me in and motioned for me to close the door.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I sat in one of her guest chairs.
“Do you have plans tonight?” she asked, smiling widely.
“None whatsoever,” I answered, reaching my hands across her desk.
She held them gently. “The rest of my day is going to be spent in meetings about what is going on with the old groups and then meetings about the new one. Let’s go out to dinner to celebrate. I’m sure I will need it by the end of this day.”
“I am truly happy that you are getting a group like this. It’ll show them how good you really are at what you do. Do you think Jimmy or Nell is going to want to fill your shoes?”
She laughed. “Nell is happy she dodged going into Core Care but has no aspirations to climb the ladder any further. Jimmy might want it, but we all know leadership would squash that fast. They are both good at doing what they do, so a new boss is what they’ll get.”
“Three new ones for you,” I said, squeezing her hands. “Do you want any of the others that are here to fill the spots, or do you want to start fresh?”
She pulled away and fixed her hair. “I’m still thinking about that. Maybe one to help me train the others. I don’t know. It’s too early to think about that. Something might come out of the transition meeting that would point to someone.” She shrugged. “Do you have any thoughts?”
I recommended my sister’s friend. “She would work great with you.”
“I heard she gave her notice.”
My mouth opened in shock. “She didn’t tell me anything.”
“Maybe you should go find out. I think she would be perfect too.”
I stood up and stretched. “I’ll go talk to her.” Opening the door, I saw a bunch of people entering HR’s new office in the corner. Never a good sign when you see people scrambling around in that direction. From Alison’s office, I could see my sister’s friend working in her pod.
“Got a minute?” I asked when I was close.
“What’s up?” she asked, turning her focus completely on me.
“Are you leaving us?” I asked quietly after checking to make sure no one else was nearby.
She held up her hand and showed me a beautiful engagement ring. She nodded and smiled. “Soon.”
I sat down in a chair next to her. “Do you realize that besides Alison, you are the only other person that was here when I started? Well, a couple of the execs were too, but they don’t count. Does my sister know?”
“For weeks. She promised not to say anything to you. Actually I made her swear that you were not to know.” Her eyes welled up. “I really will miss you.”
“When are you done?”
“Two weeks. I told them I would work until after our upcoming meeting. HR has known for almost a month.” I was actually surprised at that fact since the new one goes around telling everyone’s business at the drop of a hat. “It’s actually perfect timing, really.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer.
“Haven’t you heard?” she asked, leaning close. “There are a couple of groups that are looking to leave very soon.”
I sat back and crossed my arms. Ever since they got rid of the mail room people and my former boss I’ve been the last to get any news. “Are you kidding me?”
She shook her head slowly. “You might want to update your resume.”
I stomped my foot. “No way.”
“Seriously, things are about to get very bad around here,” she said calmly.
“What about that new group?”
“That won’t make up the difference.”
“But they were so excited about it.”
She sighed and stared at me like I was a sick animal. “You try to see the good in everything, don’t you?”
“Then why the show? Why treat us like idiots?” I was furious.
“You never hear the bullet that kills you around here. Haven’t you noticed that yet?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Did anyone see the Core Care debacle coming? They let a lot of good people go by forcing people to choose between two bad options.”
“The last HR lady told me about it before we moved.”
“Did you try to stop it? It wouldn’t have mattered, right? You couldn’t have seen how bad it was for everyone.”
“It turned out okay in the end, don’t you think?”
“Almost a year later. During that time, we made our clients feel we were totally incompetent. They don’t care about our internal structure until someone they are used to working with is taken away from them and replaced with someone with zero experience. On top of that, the new person leaves, and they start over again.”
I did understand her. I did see what she was talking about. There are days when you realize you are at a crossroads and that the time for action is now. The issue is that I have become so used to ignoring my problems that I am in no position to reach out and help anyone else. Having your head in the sand makes it difficult to know when the situation has actually gotten worse. Ultimately, I am doing no one any good.
“Well,” I said, standing up. “I hope you will stay in touch.” I have said that very thing to so many people over the course of my employment here. Funny thing, I can’t think of a single person who has maintained a meaningful relationship with me after leaving. Trouble is, I have not been very good at reaching out of my selfishly small world to encourage or extend the friendship.
I went into the server room and closed the door. Sitting in front of the servers, I stared blankly at them, wondering if this was what I wanted to do the rest of my life. Was I going to tolerate any more of management’s plans that were directly responsible for our current situation? Is this how every company operated? Maybe I was the shortsighted one.
Maybe given enough time, their plans would succeed the way they hoped.
People who move in and out of a company, staying two or three years, can’t understand long-term vision. Even though it took almost a year, the Core Care group was meeting the needs of our clients. We needed the right people in the right positions; it just took a while to accomplish that task. I could sit on the sidelines and criticize the whole process, or I could throw myself into the mix and help. It was really surprising that the person who helped me get this job was so quick to dismiss all the good work done as she was leaving. Surely she must see the cycle that each new initiative goes through before bearing fruit.
There was a knock on the door. Since it is usually open, it must be someone hunting me down for something important. “Sorry,” I said, opening the door.
“We’ve been laid off,” Kay said, pushing her way into the room with Wren right behind.
Right before we moved to the new building, HR told me that I was no longer going to be in charge of the desktop and web departments. So I was shocked that they made Wren fly back here only to tell her that kind of news. “That’s horrible. What reason did they give you?”
“Does it really matter?” Kay demanded. “What is going on? They were telling us about this new association one minute and getting rid of us the next.”
“I knew this was going to happen the way they were talking to me on the phone,” Wren added. “Such a waste of money and time to make me come back.”
“Are you going to be in town for a while?” I wanted to hang out with them at least one more time and didn’t want to break my date with Alison.
After arranging a final get-together with them, I escorted them to the elevator and waited for them to catch the next one. I walked quickly back to the server room, closed the door, and plopped down in the chair. There was no way I was able to work. Dinner couldn’t come soon enough.