The other side of the fence, NOT!!!
I have been on the other side of fence, workerbee vs. Management, for some time now. As a workerbee I have been downsized, rightsized, RIFed, outsourced, reorganized and whatever other sugar coated words the corporate world has manufactured to hide the fact that you are really being FIRED so that the division you work for can show a profit this year. Waiting and wading through all of the gossip, and executive tours through your work areas, until the other shoe finally drops has never been a pleasant experience.
Today, however, I have experienced it all again, except I was the boss this time. I am here to tell you that I would rather have walked through sheep dip and broken glass on my hands and knees than to have shared the impending doom with my employees. But it had to be done, and I was the one to do the doing. To quote the movie, Spiderman, "With awesome power, comes awesome responsibility." What I now realize is that I am at a much greater risk of loosing my job than they are of loosing theirs. I did the best that I could to reassure my employees they still had at least six months, if not longer, before things would start happening. The looks on their faces made me want to jump up and say, "Didn't any of you read Antigone? Don't you know that you aren't suppose to shoot the messenger?" I was able to keep myself in check, which meant pushing the vomit back down where I wished it would stay and finished the meeting.
I am sure they will all talk later, sans their boss, yours truly to discuss how they really feel about it. For this I am sad. I want to be able to comfort them, like I would my children, but that is just not the way things go in the business world. Setting someone on your lap, patting them, and telling them everything will be ok is not exactly a career advancing move these days. For now I will have to comfort myself in the fact that I had no more control over this situation that they did, and they are all adults who will pull through this just like I did when I was in there shoes. Which is a good thing, since I will need to be dusting off my own resume, and heading to the Monster Boards myself.
Today, however, I have experienced it all again, except I was the boss this time. I am here to tell you that I would rather have walked through sheep dip and broken glass on my hands and knees than to have shared the impending doom with my employees. But it had to be done, and I was the one to do the doing. To quote the movie, Spiderman, "With awesome power, comes awesome responsibility." What I now realize is that I am at a much greater risk of loosing my job than they are of loosing theirs. I did the best that I could to reassure my employees they still had at least six months, if not longer, before things would start happening. The looks on their faces made me want to jump up and say, "Didn't any of you read Antigone? Don't you know that you aren't suppose to shoot the messenger?" I was able to keep myself in check, which meant pushing the vomit back down where I wished it would stay and finished the meeting.
I am sure they will all talk later, sans their boss, yours truly to discuss how they really feel about it. For this I am sad. I want to be able to comfort them, like I would my children, but that is just not the way things go in the business world. Setting someone on your lap, patting them, and telling them everything will be ok is not exactly a career advancing move these days. For now I will have to comfort myself in the fact that I had no more control over this situation that they did, and they are all adults who will pull through this just like I did when I was in there shoes. Which is a good thing, since I will need to be dusting off my own resume, and heading to the Monster Boards myself.
Written by Im A Foto Nut at 11/17/2004 02:29:00 pm
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