Outsourced!
Since I haven’t finished my “about me” page, people who read this (yeah right) that don’t know me would not know that I am an “IT worker”. More specifically, my specialty is networking. I work (or used to work) for a large company. I chose this company to work for because:
1. Their profit does not come from IT.
2. They are privately owned, and intend to stay that way.
3. They are very large, global in fact, and have a large network.
These things were very important to me at the time I was looking for the job as it was just before the IT “bubble” burst and the layoffs began. I figured that since the companies main profits did not come from IT they would not be affected by the IT market directly, or at least not feel it as deeply.
Fast forward four years, one year ago from today. It turns out that I was mostly right. I still have a job and it wasn’t really in peril over the last five years except for 9/11, in which case I don’t think that anyone went without some kind of circumastance. The company had to take some action, so we went without pay raises for a year. To me this seemed a very small price to pay. After all I still had a job and the company, although hurt by 9/11, didn’t seem to be at risk of completely failing. The management communicates well enough so that at least we would have warninig if it was. Plus I really like working here. My co-workers are almost completely compitent at the jobs they do and the only real downside is the 2 hour commute everyday.
It is somewhat unnerving that in this time there have been 3-4 reorganizations. I don’t have a wide experience of large companies, but I don’t think that yearly reorg’s are a normal part of business. To me it seems that when you reorg you are attempting to correct a severe problem in how you do business, and your customers are upset and something needs to be done. I can see where this type of exersize would need to be completed every so often, say every 5 - 10 years or so, becuause if you are in a growing and profitable market, it is also a changing market. So this tells me that either my upper management does not know what the customer is asking for or they don’t know how to deliver it. It is kinda like a drunk staggering around the bar not really ever having any stable movement, but not falling down.
We still must be doing something right as it seems that several IT industry magazines have selected our IT department as one of the best, and we also were selected as one of the top 100 IT jobs.
Last March we recieved notice that as part of the overall enterprise planning exersizes that were already in progress they would also be looking at outsourcing IT functions. Before the end of the announcement, which took at least 15 minutes due to the management speak, I had my resume updated and posted to all the major job sites. Even though they clearly indicated that it was just an evaluation, I knew better. There were two companies pounding at the door, both promising millions in savings if only you hand over all your IT functions to them. As the process unfolded I must have progressed through the grieving process even though I wasn’t really aware of it. Before the formal announcement was made last month I had convinced myself that there was no way that the company would be stupid enough to outsource the whole thing, even if it meant a couple million a year. I could see some functions going out but surely not the whole thing.
I was wrong.
So, as of today, I don’t have a job. I am still working for the company, but that is just so that I can hand over control to the invaders. There is something disturbing to me about training your own replacement. So I am feverishly looking for employment at some other company that hopefully won’t mess with my future like this one has. I know that this is probably not going to happen as companies are there to make profits, not ensure my future wealth and comfort. I am overhead. If the owner of the company had the time and knowledge they would certainly do my job themselves, as that is how I would feel if it were my company. However, even though I realize these things I still feel a deep sense of betrayal. This company did a rather spectacular job of brainwashing employees into feeling not just as an employee, but you were a part of the family.
If you ask most people what is the most important thing in the world, unless they come from severe disfunction, the answer “family” would certainly appear in the top five, if not the top three. Some selfless individuals would probably respond with #1. Well, I’m not that selfless, and to me I am #1, then my wife, then our families. Since this is how I think I tend to assume that most people feel pretty much the same way, as I am just an average guy. So, back to the brainwash. If you hear something over and over again over the course of an extended period of time, you will tend to believe it. Or, I should say, that I and many other people that I work with used to believe it. That is how it was at the company. Time and time again we were told how important family was, and that the most important thing to the company was family. I should have detected a problem at that point becuase as I indicated, to me family is #3, but I suppose that does not sound good coming out of the CEO’s mouth.
“You are all the third most important thing to this company, don’t forget that.” - Company CEO
Never gonna happen.
So we were #1. It feels good to be number one. Once you truely believe it you will do extrordinary things. You will work without complaint into the night to make sure that the project that was mishandled since the time that someone thought of it gets done on time. This is what you do for family. It’s not work, it’s a labor of love. You want your family to say healthy and grow. You don’t want bad things to happen to it. You want other people to think that your family is the best, and say wonderful things about it. If anyone in your family calls you in the middle of the night and needs you, you are there for them and you don’t even think twice about it. In my time here almost no one has quit for another job. People come here to stay here. We all work whenever the company/family asked us to, but mostly they didn’t have to ask. We were all good at our jobs and did what needed to be done before we were asked to.
Let’s take the family thing further. Imagine that you uncle, who you have very fond memroies of as a child, and still do as an adult. He would always do things with you, and was always there when you needed him through thick and thin. He was almost like a second dad. Do you believe for a second that someone could come along and do anything or offer anything that would make you give up your uncle? I bet not. The brainwashing was almost that effective.
The company has decided that thier uncles, aunts and cousins can be replaced by the invaders, and that the company and the displaced family members will fondly look back on the day and realize what a great opportunity this was for both of us. I have no doubt that the company will survive, at it has demonstrated that it possessed the required brutality to survive at all costs in the business world. What will become of the family members? 500+ family members cast out into the street.
I can speak for myself. I am not a member of any family that I was not born, or married into. These are the ties and bonds that matter. It is not possible for a company to exist and actually treat it’s employees as family members. If I don’t find a job, I don’t have a place set aside where I am welcome at the CEO’s house. My real family, the only family that matters, does. My real family would not cast me aside for all the money in the world, nor would I cast them aside. So the bottom line is no matter what you are told and no matter how good it sounds or how much you want to believe, unless you are self employed, every company that exists today and wants to exist tomorrow has it’s #1 priority clearly set as profit, and sustaining that profit. There is and can be nothing that can interfere with that.
So always remember that no matter where you work you are doing someone elses job, and that it is just a job. It could be gone tomorrow. It doesn’t matter.
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