So I experienced my first firm-wide retrenchment exercise today, and it was not pleasant at all. Was quite looking forward to it at first from a process perspective because i'd never seen it happen before and because I was convinced that my team would be OK. After all, we had finally completed the build-out of the team in Nov and we had hired an extremely and undisputedly smart boss from a top-tier competitor.
The morning started out pretty slowly. Nothing was happening, just lots of senior directors and MDs meeting in offices and walking around, but no word was given. We carried on with our daily business and discussions. At abt 11.40am, the phone rings, and we all see that it is for P, and from the room downstairs where these retrenchment meetings were going on. Not good. The junior people on our team start to panic, and I find myself starting to tremble uncontrollably. It was either P or one of us. I was convinced that it could not be P, so i plugged out my iphone from the charging point and made a mental note of what things to take with me, just in case. Then P sent out an outlook invite entitled "Short meeting", in 4 mins. I knew then that it was not one of us, or the person should have been told individually, not collectively. My neighbour came back to her desk, completely oblivious, I told her that P got a call but it didn't seem to register. Then I thought maybe there was nothing to worry about and that they were just calling up the team leaders of those teams that would be fine. But then i turned around and saw that P had logged out of his computer. I could not believe my eyes. Nothing made sense, but P was his usual smiley self when the 4 mins was up, and he came around to gather us.
We went into the 1st free room we saw, and I guess I'll always remember what P said, "So I got a call from [the room], and they told me to take all my things. I guess I won't be coming back, so it was nice working with all of you. I'm sure you will all be fine for the rest of the day." Silence. Everyone was speechless for a good 5 seconds, until someone managed to find the voice, "Very sorry to hear about that." And that was it. P was gone.
Harsh. 10 minutes later, another team leader got a similar call. But he did not tell his team. He just got up, put his hands up in the air, took his coat, and left. No logging out of the computer, nothing. Casualty number 2. He did what any logical person would have done actually, but that pales in comparison to what P did. The sense of professionalism P showed in such a time was tremendous, as well as the thought for his immediate team. For that, I respect him.
The rest of the team had lunch together, and we could not understand the move. Surely it is a stupid short-sighted saving which negates all the time and effort spent getting P in the first place. Not a single person I know who have dealt with P on a professional level has failed to be impressed. Eloquent, intelligent, and perhaps over-qualified. As a manager, P was fair (as far as I could tell) and was always on top of everything, from analysis to even the admin. He even sent me a text with well wishes when I went home early from work after fainting one day. It was difficult to fault his performance. It was definitely more our loss than his loss, let's not kid ourselves. I was completely at a loss for the 1st 2 hours, and then everything started to seem so surreal. I don't think it fully hit me until I texted P a few hours ago to finally say goodbye, and got what I thought was a nice reply, "I will miss working with you. You have a great future and a great career ahead of you. Keep in touch!" I guess that is some sort of closure, and tomorrow will be the start of something different, something unknown.
I saw today the ruthlessness of the industry, and the stupidity that causes it to hire and fire in short cycles. Yet, I also saw some semblance of humanity amid it all. People banded together, and faces were mostly long. People in this industry do have emotions too.
Needless to say, very little work was done in the day, and shortly after 5pm, it was down to the pub.
The next few days and weeks will be interesting, and the start of a lot more unsettling to come.
I'm thankful that I do not entrust in any man or organisation for they may fail, but a sovereign God who always has the perfect plan. Amen.