Changes

My company went through some major management changes this week. People who were replaced had been with the company for over 25 years. Whilst the announcements were sugar coated with "mutual agreement to leave" and "he's done a fine job" etc, the fact of the matter is that the main US guy for our company was removed.

As an outsider who had been here in NY for only 7 months, the employee meeting to discuss the departures was one of the most interesting things I have been to from a work/career perspective.
I have no affinity with the guy, but there are people who have been working with him for the last 20 odd years. I couldn't imagine the shock of it to those other senior managers.

There was a lot of "the board members are only concerned with the stock price, but we're concerned with a place for people to have a job and support their families" seems very us vs the big bad corporation. In the end, I believe we're all here so that we can make money, and if the guy is not performing or he's not the right guy to implement some improvements, then it's time for some new blood.

The strangest thing was the message the other senior guys were saying, that "things around here won't change much", and "NY is what we want the company to be". Given that the main guy was removed, you would think that change is in the air, and that if you don't toe the corporate line (as a regional business) you'd better watch out. The message from corporate was none too subtle.

As the financial controller said to me (again, he's a new guy to the company), this is just the beginning. Who knows what other changes are coming through.

I heard that when he was leaving, the main guy said that "I'll be back in a year to take this company". It's definitely an interesting time to be in the US!