Date posted: July 10, 2006 - Monday
Title: Can you say Screwed?
Current mood: exhausted
I hate the month of July. It has always been a month to me that brings pain and loss.
My best friend died in a plane crash on July 5th one year. My father died late in the month of July. And this year on July 5th I walked in to work to find the company I work for has been sold. Corporate America plies another heap of pain onto my month of July.
On Friday of this week I will finish the eighth year of my official employment with this organization (eight and a half if you count the months I worked for the company through a temp agency during the construction of this venue.)
Eight years in the same job, learning all I can and busting my hump to prove to people what I can do and what I can contribute. Untold hours of unpaid overtime trying to make a contribution and demonstrate my worth in the hope of advancement. All the time wanting to grow into a position where I could make a decent living to ensure some kind of future for myself.
I have watched people come and go here. Four general managers now, three marketing managers, two or three production managers, two operations managers, two sponsorship managers, five box office managers, four business managers, three marketing assistants and a slew of talent buyers, talent assistants, sponsorship assistants and assorted seasonal personnel. It has been a veritable parade that has passed as I sat in the cubby hole I call an office and cranked out ream after ream of paper in support of this venue.
Last night during Ozzfest, one of the old talent buyer assistants stopped by my office. He was the one who left for greener pastures and passed on to me the job of contract administration that has been mine to carry on since then. He was here as to tour manager or production manager for the headlining act. He seemed amazed I was the only one remaining in this office since he had been here a few years ago. And his quick visit stirred in me thoughts of curiosity as to why I am still here.
Recently I had been talking to people I respect in the home office of the company. I had been expressing my strong desire to move on to something better, something more than being the chief paper pusher and all around flunky at this venue.
I have been through corporate layoffs before. Survived three waves of cuts with an aerospace firm before getting the axe. Got dumped by a newspaper when the costs of installing a new press went out of control.
I know how this works. I have seen enough of corporate restructuring to make, I think, a fair prediction of the future in this company.
Of course there has been talk among the rank-and-file about what is going to happen. We have gotten pretty good at that while going through several periodic spasms of a possible sale of the company. And the message we are getting from the top is the same I have heard time and time again in the corporate world; nothing has been decided yet, business as usual.
It brings to mind the scene in the The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is in the Emerald City. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
A whole lot easier said than done.
And the speculation I am getting is, people at the venue level are safe.
Well, safe isn’t enough.
Not by a long shot any more. I don’t want to put in another eight years of being the flunky who keeps things running while being underpaid and taken for granted.
Like I said, I think I know enough about corporate restructuring to make some predictions. And what I predict is that I am, personally, screwed.
Since it is being bought out, the company I work for is not going to make any dramatic changes (or maybe no changes at all) in the months it will take to finalize this deal. Any hopes of advancement, promotion of movement into a better job for me are up in smoke. And when a new executive structure takes over they won’t know me from Adams off ox. There will be no knowledge of my skills, talents, abilities or the contribution I have made in the past.
So, what I see is a bleak future of doing the same grunt work for too little pay.
Can you say screwed?
(Try to avoid the puddles of self-pitying tears as you exit the building.)
Currently listening to:
Linda Ronstadt: Greatest Hits
By Linda Ronstadt
Release date: 25 October, 1990
