The More Things Stay the Same, the More Things Change

I'm still employed. The company for which I work decided to restructure and divest itself of components that did not fit with its new direction. My division was the main one divested. It decided to eliminate approximately 200 jobs and $100 million a year today. By divesting itself of this division, the company is saving approximately $65 million a year in costs and gets a little more than half-way to its goal of 200 people. They are restructuring out the other people, gaining about $30 million, and then are closing some facilities and doing some odds and ends clean up to achieve the remaining $10 million per year.

The (now) former company was a decent one, but we never quite fit into its needs. We've been actively on the block for at least 18 months now. The company that is purchasing this division is privately owned, directly in the same industry as we are, and has wanted to acquire us for a long time because we are one of their direct competitors and, frankly, do what they want to do better than they do. It appears that they find we run lean (maybe even too-lean) and they have no plans for any layoffs from our division. Matter of fact, one of the reason they bought us is because they are actively seeking to grow and this was a quick way to add a viable, successful program, take out a rival in the industry, and increase their head count and intellectual property. While many other companies are letting people go, this company has over 50 current job openings and may allow us finally to hire some staff that we desperately need.

For the next month or so we will remain as part of, and employees of, the former company while the powers that be resolve and sign everything. After that, we will be employees of the new company.

It seems from what we have been told and what I have read about the new company that this will be a much better fit for our talents. The fact that we are joining a private company is also extremely advantageous, too. Public companies are not run by their management-- they are at the whim of the stockholders whose only goal is return on investment. That forces management to constantly make decisions that may not be in the best interest of their product or people or even their industry in order to maximize profits on the stocks. A private company, on the other hand, can take time to see how the industry is moving, keep lower-profit or unprofitable divisions around as it makes changes to facilitate the division's long-term success, and are not at the whim of "the Street" when making decisions for the company.

I find much value in my time spent in the former company, however. I got to work on many different products, learned a lot, and expanded my horizons. It was also personally gratifying that they allowed me some special favors like working from Canada two weeks out of every quarter and to work from home when not feeling as well as I could. I hope that some of these arrangements might continue with the new company, but expect they won't. With luck, I won't be with this new company too long before I see approval on the immigration paperwork and plan the big move to Canada. Then again, maybe this new company will have a different policy on employees working from Canada that I can take advantage of, too.