Coming To America: Corporate Version

So…I spent last week facilitating the training of a new Guatemalan employee.

Background:  I work in an Accounting department, which is part of a larger group of several hundred Accounting and Finance employees. Last fall, management announced that, due to ongoing cost pressures, and in order to stay competitive, management had decided to (almost exactly quoted) start hiring resources and shifting workload and job functions to lower cost areas. It was explained that one of the advantages of the major acquisition completed a few years ago was that the acquired company had an established presence in some of these lower cost areas. Therefore, management felt compelled to leverage this advantage.  This decision was one of the results of a benchmarking study that had been taking place over the past couple of years. This study analyzed our spend on Accounting and Finance in comparison to other companies of similar size in similar industries. It was determined that in general, we spend about double against the comparison point.

It was then explained that this was going to be done in several waves. There had been some analysis done, which determined that a handful of departments could undergo a transition over the next six month period, beginning at the time of the announcement. Other departments would then be reviewed to determine if the workload could be transitioned, and if so, how much, with a long-term time frame of a couple of years. In general, the determining factors of whether individual jobs or entire departments could be transition could include the complexity of the positions, compared to the technical abilities of the workforce available in these other areas. My department was not included in the first wave.

Personal background:  while living in Pennsylvania, for my first official job out of college, I started working for a small private company in late 1994. Two years later, in late 1996, I was laid-off from that job due to cost pressures. I started working for my current company in the spring of 1997. Sort of. Actually, I started working at the corporate headquarters of a different company in 1997, and that company was acquired by my current company in the spring of 1998. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that in working for a company that has just been bought out, there is an instant uncertainty as to if you will keep your job, and if so, how long. In early 2000, management announced that they were going to close the office and transition jobs to New York, citing cost redundancies. Three WEEKS later, it was announced that the move was off, as in cancelled, and things would go back to business as usual. 

In the summer of 2005, it was announced, again, that they were going to close the office and transition jobs to New York.  The way that transition worked; employees were hired in New York, asked to travel to Pennsylvania for a period of time to be trained by the outgoing employees and management. Then, the outgoing employees were asked to travel to New York to observe the new employees and make sure they were able to function, and then the outgoing employees would be finished and released to collect severance and move on. The transitions took anywhere from eight to eighteen months depending on the position. As the result of some extenuating circumstances, I was asked to have my end date extended twice, and then eventually in the fall of 2006 was given a relocation offer, and that is how I ended up in New York in 2007.

Since moving, the department I’ve worked in has been involved in a handful of smaller acquisitions, where I have been on the acquisitioner side, opposed to the acquisitionee side of things. In those cases, there was some job shifting - nothing major compared to what I went through in 2005-2006 – but with any job shifting, there is an art (of sorts) of being able to take job functions and explain and translate them to different people with different backgrounds and experiences and opinions, etc. With my company’s major acquisition in 2010 came a different set of transitions: departments were being shifted from the current company’s management to the acquisitioned company’s management – lateral moves.

More background:  with all that said, I have experience in job shifting. Because of that (I believe), soon after this announcement last fall, I was asked if I would be willing to assist in the job transition of one of the positions. I’ve had to work very closely with the person in this position over the past two years, and somewhat closely with for several years before then, including when the Pennsylvania jobs were being transitioned to New York.

I may have mentioned before that I have a wonderful direct manager. In this case, she was just the messenger; she did her best to assure me that I could say no to this question, but in the back of my mind, I felt some pressure to say yes:  what kind of message would that send to upper management if I appeared uncooperative? So I said I would help. But I felt conflicted.

SO:  last week was the first week of training. I felt conflicted in agreeing to help with this transition. I felt conflicted heading into the week. And at the end of the first week, I’m still conflicted, but differently. So, here is a collection of various and rambling thoughts and points-of-views after the first week of training, in no particular order – if nothing else, writing out these conflicts may help me compartmentalize all of it. And, best case, maybe something good can come out of it.

Angle #1:  In the CMA (Certified Managerial Accountant) college course I took three years ago, it was stated several times what the point of being in business is (being a publicly-traded company):  delivering value to its shareholders. Logically, I get it:  without shareholders/owners/investors, there would be no business. And value in this case specifically means stock value, which is dependent on dividends, which is dependent on profit. So, I get the pressure to increase profits, which is either a function of how much money is brought in (revenue) or how much money is spent (cost). So, I get cost pressures, logically.

What I feel like has changed over the years, if not decades, in the business world is this:  the definition of “investors” has narrowed over time to only include shareholders. Employees are investors to a company as well, or were. The investment in this case is not capital, but of time and effort and productivity, who the value that the employee-investor receives, or received, was salary and job security, not dividends. It seems to me that as each generation passes, the link between employer and employee in the value “equation” gets more and more lost.  Every now and then, there’s a story published about a company that does treat its employees well, and how there seems to be a collective sense of success, but those companies seem fewer and farther between. And over time, employer loyalty, and employee loyalty as well, seems to have largely disappeared. There’s probably a debate about which came first, employer disloyalty or employee disloyalty, but that’s for another day. What is true is that at the beginning of my career, having a resume with several shorter-term jobs listed (2-3 years) was advised against; and now, in many cases it’s preferred. 

I have invested 17 years of my time in this company, and with the announcement, it no longer seems like an investment. And in addition, there isn’t a collective sense of ownership, of unity, any more, within the group of my peers. We’re all forced to be in competition with each other, in employment competition. I don’t like the idea of helping someone lose their job, but in the back of my mind, in order to look out for my well-being, that seemed like my best option, and I find that unfortunate for anyone who has invested time in a company and ends up in a position such as this.

BUT…I can’t totally discount the need and logic for a company looking to control costs, either. So…I can wrap my head around why this is happening, even if I don’t really like it, or completely agree with it. But then the next thing to wrap my head around is the “who” aspect of this…  

Angle #2:  The outgoing employee, who I will call Jill, and who works in a different building, is someone who has invested more time here than I have. I have worked with on and off with Jill over the last ten years, and closely over the past two years, and we get along very well. She is an older person, old enough to retire. When the announcement came out last fall, we talked about it, even before I was asked to help. Most people have heard of the five stages of grief (the Kubler-Ross Model), of which the stages are:   denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model. Since I’ve been subjected to the losing-my-job process three times, I can attest that this news does trigger grief and it does trigger the five stages, even if you’ve always known losing your job was a possibility. For me, back in 1998, when my employer was bought out, it was always a reality that at some point the office was going to be shut down, but that didn’t make the news any easier in 2000, and again in 2005. Even with the announcement this past fall, even though my specific department was told that we’re not in the first wave, our job security did take a major hit; there will possibly be an end to our jobs that is outside of our control, was news enough to trigger those stages.

Jill went through those stages last fall as well, at a slightly deeper level, as she was in a department targeted for the first wave. However, she wasn’t specifically notified about her job until the Friday before this training was to begin. (NOTE:  I’m not going to get into thoughts about the decision of the timing of her notification, as there are several takes on it, except to say that in the end, I understand the decision and I’m not sure if there was a better option). I knew that the notification was coming, but I was out of the office that day.

On that Monday morning, Jill and I had a chance to talk before meeting the incoming employee, and I witnessed all of those stages in a 15 minute conversation and throughout the first day. I wrote that she is old enough to retire, but I don’t think she is ready to retire. We haven’t talked about why that is, and so I’m not going to speculate. I mention that to say that it does make hearing the news about losing your job harder to hear and process if you’re not ready to retire, even if you are at retirement age.  But, fortunately, in this case, she seems to have come to terms with what has been happening, and has been more than cooperative with training her replacement – she seems into it. And there is an explanation for this:

Pride. Pride in the work that you do, pride for the things you’ve learned along the way, and pride to the point of a sense of ownership; and that has come out in this transition. She is proud about what she has done and proud about the position, and doesn’t want to see that effort fall apart in the transition. She doesn’t want to see someone come along and ruin everything that has been built up by her. And, fortunately (again), we’ve lucked out in who we ended up as a replacement employee…

Angle #3:  The incoming employee is a thirty-something man born and raised in Guatemala, who I will call Victor. He is very excited for this opportunity.  He is very excited to be in America. I think it sucks that his first week in America was spent in Western New York, in one of the coldest weeks of one of the coldest winters we’ve had in years. He has never seen snow before. Last week, he saw it snow sideways. I had to show him how to properly wear a winter hat and scarf. But he’s still excited.  The company gave him, and other Guatemalans who arrived this month, a “Winter Clothing Allowance” to that they could buy boots and gloves and a winter coat…because they have no need for those items. And buried in that little story is a lesson on taking things for granted. We’re used to this kind of weather, but it can be a shock to the system figuratively and literally. Victor told Jill & I that the first night he was here, his ears got really cold outside. When he went back inside, he described how his ears started burning, and it worried him enough to get some cold water bottles to hold against his ears…which made me laugh, but when I thought about it, if I didn’t realize that burning feeling was normal, I’d probably do the same thing.

Victor is going to be here for six straight weeks. He’s excited to be here in America. But he speaks often about his fiancée and his mom, and he says he talks to them every night, and that he misses them. It has to be emotional to be in this country, and for such a long time, such a long way from home. His English is pretty good; we’ve rarely had moments where we couldn’t understand him or vice versa. He told us that the schools there do teach English and that it’s stressed that it’s important to learn it. And even in this week of training, there have been several times where he’s been in conflict with himself…he’s told us that he wants to learn so fast that he wants to take notes in Spanish, but at the same time, he want to learn English specific to this job so much that he wants to slow down and take notes in English, not in Spanish. He wants to practice English as much as possible. But he is also proud of his country.  He is proud of speaking Spanish and wants to teach us how to speak Spanish. Victor gave Jill & I some Guatemalan currency as a gift – diez Quatzales, worth a little more than one dollar. He offered us “a place to stay if we ever wanted to see his country.” Some of that might sound or read corny, but he is totally genuine about it and I find it nice to see.

And fortunately, he’s been very sensitive towards the situation. He told me early on the first day that he was nervous about how Jill was going to feel, knowing that he was replacing her job. He told me later on another occasion that he could sense some sadness coming from Jill. He wants to learn. But he wants to be fair about it…and I couldn’t ask for anything more. He’s been very open about thanking us for our patience and understanding and making him feel welcome, especially under the circumstances.

So, with that said…

Angle #4:  …what next? I’m pointing that question out, only to say that I’m not going to answer that question.  I can’t answer that question. And I’m not going to attempt to answer that question. I have no idea what is going to happen next, and I can’t. Last week, I was a bit anxious about what was going to happen this week.  The weekend before the training was my normal monthly trip back home to Pennsylvania, and on my drive back home to New York (and yes, I call both places home), I made a conscious decision to stop worrying about what might or might not happen in the upcoming week. And I have to adopt the same mindset about all of this. I’ve wondered how I might be perceived because “I’m helping us lose our jobs”. I’ve wondered what will happen when this specific transition ends and someone realizes that I had two weeks of free time to devote to helping.  I wondered what would happen if Jill decided to quit and leave me to train on my own. I wondered what would happen if Victor didn’t seem to pick things up. 

And I started falling victim to something I always preach against…the danger of “what-if-ing”. Whenever someone asks me a what-if question, I usually respond with the exact opposite what if. Q:  What is it rains? A:  What if it doesn’t rain? (And yes, I answered a question with a question, and yes, it can sound annoying.) What-if-in is easy to do when things become uncertain…but in reality, reality exists in the present and the present only. Trying to predict and control the future is counter-productive, even if it doesn’t seem counter-intuitive. So I had to stop myself. On my drive, I drowned out my thoughts with music (shocker).

Monday morning, I walked in. The three of us met. We sat in a conference room. We didn’t have a plan. I looked up and said “Ok, we’re going to wing it.” I asked Victor if he knew what I meant by the phrase “wing it”. He said yes. So…we winged it. And had a productive week. By Wednesday afternoon, we got to a point where I felt that we were all comfortable with each other and what needed to be done, and we had naturally evolved into a direction, so we were able to put some structure around the transition. It wasn’t something that could be planned, or predicted, or what-if-ed.

And all that leads to…

Angle #5:  Balance. This week, I found out that the most important thing to keep in mind that week was balance. I have to keep all of the above in balance. I can’t discount the excitement and eagerness of Victor. I can’t discount the sadness and anger and disappointment of Jill. I can’t blame a single person for what is happening, and even if I could, blame isn’t going to change anything anyway. I have to keep my own feelings and emotions in check, and in some kind of perspective. They exist; and they serve a purpose, and they’re legit, but I have to keep it all in balance. I can’t come to a single conclusion; I can’t settle on a single opinion. It all has to stay in balance. I have to balance what is best for me with making sure that I don’t negatively impact anyone else involved, or even anyone else that may be involved or affected – which may include myself.

There are a lot of conflicts…a lot of angles…and in the end, all we can do is to try to do what’s best for all involved under the circumstances…and as long as I can keep that in mind, I’ll get through this.
_____ 

Why did I write this, by the way? First, writing is therapeutic – for some more than others, and especially, but writing is therapeutic. It helps to put thoughts on paper for a couple of reasons. One, the process of writing forces an organization of thoughts, even in a situation where it’s just writing to write. The process of finding words to describe thoughts, and forming sentences around those words, forces some organization. Second, when thoughts become organized, sometimes there is an a-ha moment, or a lesson, or a moral that kinda pops out…and if it’s captured on paper, it’s something that can be revisited, or available as a reminder when needed. That too can be therapeutic.  Many therapists will suggest writing down a positive phrase repeatedly, or writing down some positive phrases and then looking at those phrases every morning. Often times, that seems “hokey”, but there really is something to that. Seeing something in writing, especially if it’s something you wrote, and especially if it’s something you agree with, make that though literally more concrete than “just a (fleeting) thought.”

I had a lot of conflicting thoughts whirling around in my head; though not all negative. I needed perspective and organization. This was therapeutic.

Choosing to publish this publicly to a blog serves an additional purpose, though.  Most of the people I’ve come to know in my seven years in New York are affected directly or indirectly by this overall transition, and somewhere along the way, especially the way companies seem to be headed, most of us are going to face being laid-off once or more in our lifetimes, if you have faced it already. This is the fourth time for me and it’s not any easier for me, AND that’s considering that I’m not facing a specific job threat at this time, right now. For me, the point of writing to this blog, whether it’s a serious post like this, or a just-for-fun post, is to be therapeutic to others, whether it’s provide a laugh (in other cases), or being thought-provoking (in this case).

So…hopefully I succeeded.