The Red Brick Times

Requiem for a career.
When a homeowner looks out of her beautiful picture window one day, and says, "That tree blocks the view of my daffodil bed," she has it cut down. It doesn't matter that the tree took twice as long as her life span to stretch toward the sky. It doesn't matter that the tree shelters many lives. It doesn't matter that the tree recycles the rain and reduces her air conditioning costs. The tree dies. Next spring, the homeowner looks out of her beautiful picture window and says, "That daffodil bed would look better on the other side of the driveway."

A large manufacturing company looked up from its accounting books this week and saw the view blocked by too many trees. On "Black Wednesday" this week, the "Forest Resources" department started felling trees. In every building, in every department, many, many people looked up from their desks at a forester who said "Come with me." One saw 10 of her coworkers being marched to the woodshed. The words she uttered were " surreal, spooky, frightening" and expressed feelings of displacement and disbelielf. It was not a workplace, but a bloody battleground where the felled were unarmed and unwarned. The defeated were not allowed back to their work areas. The foresters' assistants packed up what they judged to be personal affects and boxed them for later. Each head of deadwood was taken to an office, formally informed of termination (read from a form letter), stripped of ID badge, pager, cell phone, computer access, credit card and keys. Then each was escorted to the representative of a contract outplacement company who offered resume and self-marketing assistance. Then the forester, following a preprinted checklist, presented an envelope containing the company termination policy. Termination was immediate.

The discarded trunks and branches were finally escorted outside and the door was closed firmly behind them. No appeal was possible. It was sudden, brutal, impersonal, dehumanizing and terribly, terribly final. I understand how, for others, death may be a welcome alternative to this treatment.

Locally, there weren't many axed. Just two. And I do not know who the other one was.
Posted 2:14 PM by Andy (5) comments

       Comments:

Sorry, Andy.

# posted by  A. O. : January 26, 2006 3:23 PM
 
I think I understand how much your career there meant to you. Hang tough paisan. They're the ones who fucked up.

When you get around to getting your resume together fire me over a copy (pdf if possible). My salespeople are in a lot of offices. You never know.

# posted by  whatley : January 26, 2006 3:38 PM
 
Andy:
I feel for you friend. Illegitimi noncarborundum.

# posted by  Terri S : January 26, 2006 9:08 PM
 
You, my friends, are much more important, and more valuable to me than all of the pistons in SUV-land.

# posted by  Andy : January 26, 2006 11:50 PM
 
I hope that you will end up in a much better environment than the craptastic one you were just thrust out of.

Could this be a case of age discrimination? That's the first thing the lawyers asked about when I got canned in '04.

Take care and let us know how your search progresses.

Mike

# posted by  Michael : January 28, 2006 6:47 PM
 
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