Well, yesterday was a rather unnerving day at work. Along with the recent departure of our CEO and COO stepping down, it was another day of the "restructuring" kind.
Now for a little background. The company I work for has 2 main locations, one in the west and one in the east. Out here in the west, the median age of our group is somewhere between 25-35. We are thinkers, do-ers and will try about any idea that seems like it could work. Out east, it’s a different story. The median age is close to 45-65 and they more of the "but, we’ve always done it this way" variety. Even though the company preaches to be one as a company between both locations. We are treated more as the red-headed step-child to them, when we are really a parent to them. Not even to mention that produce the same amount of product and sales if not more, while staffing 1/3 to 1/2 the amount of employees their location has.
Anyway, today our newly-appointed President (from the other location) came out with several other members of management for a little restructuring session. Let go yesterday was our General Manager and President of our location (also my boss), the CFO, the CIO and another CIO/Special Project Manager. This was a means to boost the bottom end and make the company profitable in the 4Q. We also had one of those "will all employees please report to the large conference room" meetings to assure us that no one else was scheduled to be let go. Of course we HAVE had meetings like that in the past where they cut the entire inside sales department with the drop of the hat.
I just have a hard time with a lot of the procedures and believing what we’re told to be true. So many times we’ve been told that the changes made were in the best interest of the company. It would help relations between the two locations to gel as one. But on the other hand, whenever there are changes in management or positions the norm seems otherwise. Rather than move up someone from our location, they would rather hire internally at their location, or hire from outside.
Another problem or possible coincidence brought up by a (female) coworker was the new managment recently put in place with the changes. The four management positions that were disolved all happened to be male. The new managers? All female. I’m not pointing fingers or anything and this is not a problem. It just bothers me a bit to know that all of the previous positions had been interviewed separately, at different times by different people and were picked as being the best person for the position. This new crew consists of the new President and other positions which she moved people up from previous positions within the company, all at once. One would assume that if "person A" leaves, then the next person in line for the position would be "person B". This isn’t the case in a few of the positions, which makes me worry. It’s not a problem of having a woman in that position, I worry about who the person is, male or female, and are they the best choice? Are they really the best qualified person for the position, or were they moved up for convenience?
*whew!*....So now, where does that leave me and my co-worker? Boss-less? We were informed of our new manager and that we would be keeping the same duties in the Graphics Department. We will have to just wait and see how this turns out. My thoughts are, that it is the beginning of the end. Until then, I am remaining pessimistically optimistic.
