So, there's going to be a merger and I own a house here in MO/KS... (Some not so random thoughts for the next few months)

Change has been much on my mind of late. In mining my e-mail archive, I ran across this message I sent to a friend that worked at a local tele-communications company.
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To: frank.x.xxxx@mail.sprint.com
cc:

Subject: So, there's going to be a merger and I own a house here in
MO/KS... (Some not so random thoughts for the next few months)

Hi Frank,

Forward this to Chuck if you think it is worthwhile. Heck, send it to anyone you want.

All comments based on actual experience (See disclaimer below), having survived a 'Merger' of a local company with a West Coast firm a few years back.

Having worked at the headquarters and not, I find it is better to be at the HQ MOST of the time...

It's good to be a techie, they always need you, at least for a while...

For once, it's great NOT to be in upper management, of course, their parachutes are already packed and have beautiful rainbow colours... ;-)

On this subject, the closer you are in the reporting structure to the VP, the LESS you can expect her/him to look out for you. They are too busy trying to find bedrock for their OWN fulcrum to have any time to give you leverage.

Side note: The same VP a year post merger, at a group lunch on College Blvd. when the subject of the upcoming merger of our two major US distributors. "Who's going to come out on top, we all know there's no such thing as a 'Merger'."

It may or may not be good to be in Middle Management (See above.)

As far as my experience, it is, at least for now, good to be a flunky. Everybody in management will be fighting it out and waiting for the dust to settle for MONTHS on this one. THEN things will start changing since we all know that 'streamlining' of the operation and associated 'cost savings' will be what the stockholders will be expecting after they get over the euphoria over the stock price increase. (This process will make the jump to light-speed if the stock price does NOT go up.)

Now, what to do as you hunker down and wait to see what happens to you particular job.

Do your Sgt. Schultz imitation. You know nothing, You see nothing. They keep paying you. You keep coming in to work. You answer you phone. You do your job.

I offer the following Real Life Example:

One day you come in and find out your function has been effectively moved to a new 'department' that a former colleague has managed to stake out @ HQ and 'unfortunately' he has no budget to continue your position. You do NOT force the issue. You do NOT go to local management and try do determine what to do. You do NOT go to HR and ask them any questions about your position. WHAT YOU DO IS NOTHING AT ALL - BECAUSE IF YOU JUST BIDE YOUR TIME WHAT WILL IS:

They keep paying you. You keep coming in to work. You answer you phone. You do your job.

End of personal RLE

Side note: Always MAKE THEM FIRE YOU. One young lady kept coming in to work for a full 6 months after everyone else in her group had been laid off. No one ever forced the issue with her nor did she.

Finally at the end of the process, she then got the SAME severance package as anyone else. (She spent most of the time job searching, I suppose, since no one knew what to do about assigning her anything official, since 'officially' she was laid-off...)

Having later observed the above mentioned young lady, I realized I had been a fool to force the issue mentioned in the RLE, which resulted in my having to scramble to find another department to transfer to (Thanks Suzanne) and ended up with my returning to the same job for the same VP six months later, allowing me to hear the above mentioned VP make the comment on mergers...

Sooooo, everybody repeat after me:

They keep paying you. You keep coming in to work. You answer you phone. You do your job.

One last thing, start developing your network now, if it does not already exist. Tap into the grapevine. Rumor travels FASTER THAN LIGHT and there is much chaff.

Learn to ignore the obvious BS: After this lay-off, all of our remaining are going to have our salaries brought into line with California...

Yeah Right.....

Some of it will be TRUE, learn to figure out which. (In our case, SOMEBODY in local HR was leaking info., almost EVERYTHING that passed muster was not only TRUE, but was EXACTLY almost WORD for WORD, dead on.)

For what it's worth, you can benefit from my experience of not, your choice. (See disclaimer below.)

Best of luck,

BB