A New Beginning
So now it’s official. The new owners, henceforth known as “the Liberators”, finalized the sale of our company and began meeting with all of us last week. They spoke of pay raises and new product lines and less mismanagement. You can imagine how the morale at work quickly rose to new heights. Considering our morale was at rock bottom, it didn’t take much to get us excited about coming to work again. In fact, after the initial plant like meeting, there was an immediate improvement when they fired a VP because “his vision for the company was not in line with ours.” Not surprising. There had been a running joke that there was only one way to get things done with this VP: make him think that he was the one who had thought of your idea. Otherwise, be prepared to be rushed into solutions that often ended up causing more problems. (I am still amazed how we narrowly avoided a couple of serious product recalls.)
When I started with this company 17 years ago, they had about over 200 people supporting sales of about 1 1/2 million dollars a month. Last week, when the former owners signed the company over, there were less than 80 people supporting 2 1/2 million dollars a month. I’m not saying that the old owners were bad businessmen. Yet as time went on, they did less and less to grow the company. The last seven years have been very telling. There were several downsizes. Pay raises were nonexistent. The owners began micromanaging expenses to the point they would allow heating and air to operate only between 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m during the weekday. You can imagine what fun this was during cold winters and scorching summers as we worked during six in the morning to six at night. “Please Mr. Scrooge, may I have a small lump of coal for a fire?”
Naturally the owners’ greed began to take its toll on everyone’s morale. Before the extreme cost cutting measures, the company was making a good profit. It didn’t take an accounting genius to realize that their profits grew even more as they greatly reduced operating expenses. It didn’t help matters when, last year, we learned the owners were taking out over $1 million a month from the company. Last week before the papers were signed, the outgoing CFO shut off the bank’s line of credit to our company without telling anyone in accounting. For several hours, those of us without direct deposit weren’t sure if our paychecks were valid or not. I don’t know if he did this because he and the owners had sold another of their businesses for $21 million that very day.
I have to say that, right now, the names of W.R., J.S. and J.L. are spoken at work with the affection usually reserved for Osama Bin Laden. You notice that I only show the initials of these former owners. No need to summon greed demons. Besides, the last thing I need is a lawsuit for pointing them out. Of course, there are no guarantees that the new owners will be any better. All we have at the moment is our liberators’ past track record, a record that shows, not only can they talk the talk but, they have already walked the walk in other successful enterprises. On a personal note, I was asked by one of the new VPs if I would defer any job seeking because of the plans they have for me. Thinking back on our conversation, I feel like I have already been hired on by a new, very promising company. The next few months should prove to be quite interesting and, hopefully, profitable.
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