Just when you think its safe to get back to work...
When you have a boss that is pretty much stealth (except for IM and emails), and, he shows up out of the blue, you can pretty much guess he's not here to check your shoe size.
BB (his name is changed to protect his identity, not that anyone would care) *showed up* for our weekly team meeting. Needless to say, the pucker-factor rose above the redline for all that attended. The only time he apparatus is for bad news. Twice before, he showed up for 1) announcing we were not getting raises (due to making too much) and 2) to announce that Big Blu would not pick up the tab on College.
Now, I've been around the block, and, seen my share of stick time, foxhole time, and have a pretty good relationship with my little voice. I've learned to heed its sirens song, and, the gentle musings of its 'its alright, its alright'. For some reason, I kept hearing Led Zepplin's Coda play in my head.
Then, the hammer dropped.... Position is being dropped - need to look for another job. Not good.
Now, I'm not the SME (subject matter expert) on leadership, management, and, people leading skills, but, I've done it. And, probally could have handled the situation far better than this sloth. The meeting ended, BB praised the team, then asked me to remain. He entered his backpack (???) produced several Manila folders, and took out a group of white papers.
"This is to inform you that your current position is identified for removal, and that you have been placed in 'resource action' mode". I prefer common English ('laid off', 'canned', 'fired') to the PC/HR/*soft fall* lingo.
"Its not about you," BB chimed, "but a business decision." Great - I'm old hardware... "Start looking," BB continues, "both inside and outside the company. The responsibility rests with you - you need to find your next job."
Now, I'm not sure, but it seems, one of his *headcount* is prepping to be removed, and, it would be a good idea to find him a new home? I guess when you're a primary color (and on the DJIA), *headcounts* are a dime a dozen.
Well, to sumise, I am looking, been looking, and look forward to the day when PC (primary color) both realizes that people do count, and meet their fate. I'm not the Union or Organized Labor kind of guy (why pay someone to represent me - its bad enough I have a do nothing Representitive and Senator), but IBM's model of biz is old, clunky, and falling out of favor. In the late 80's, IBM was a nats hair away from Bankruptcy. Its not improved much since.
It looks quite nice from the outside, but, inside, its heavily over managed, promotes micromanagement, and the classic bureaucratic model. Sloth fits.
Well, it made a nice few lines on a resume (speaking of that, I *guess* I should have been warned in May when no raises were coming, except a link on 'how to write an effective resume' was given instead - "Your resume," BB gleamed, "is an important tool, like a screwdriver").
It sure looks nice on the inside, but believe me, its all a house of cards on the inside... Anybody got a can of air?
UPDATE
1 - Boy is growing nicely. Football training is progressing "Alright, son, anything from the other team that carries the ball needs killed". Crawling practice is coming along nicely.
2 - daughter is in 3rd grade. God help us all
3 - Skoole is progressing nice - 12 credits remain - two web classes, a C++ class, and a Biz class. Then, the final 'capstone' and I'm thru...
4 - Wife is well, doing well, and realizing we were never parents with only one kid. I think we're having wine tonight...
5 - Go Steelers!
-JWN
