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November 30, 2012

Oh how I love the spin

Filed under: General — Tags: — Nate @ 3:23 pm

So last night one of my friends sent me a link to an article saying that one of my former employers (whom I left more than two years ago) was closing one of their main business units and laying off 33 employees.

I’m quite out of touch with what is going on over there from a business standpoint, though I do know there’s been a ton of attrition since I left (the team I was on has turned over entirely at least twice, and has had at least 3 different directors to lead it). I was really frustrated in 2010 which some of my posts at the time were pretty obvious, so I got out.

A few days after I left another guy started (he wasn’t supposed to replace me but rather work on a project that I told the VP I refused to be a part of). I interviewed him even a few weeks before I left.  He tried, hard I imagine. I haven’t talked to him but have talked to others who have – he left almost a year ago for similar reasons that I left – management. I’ve heard tons of stories about what’s gone on there since I left, most of them very funny (wouldn’t be if I was still there though). Sometimes you can’t help but laugh.

The person who was in my position before me left for the same reason – these days I am VERY careful about finding management that is good to work with/for, it’s more important than any other aspect of the job for me – I learned the hard way.

I can’t count how many companies I have talked to or how many stories I have heard that have people being driven away by management decisions. It’s just sick, it really is. I’ve talked to multiple companies where entire teams have turned over in very short periods of time (at least five in Seattle alone). Hell, I’ve been part of two of them at consecutive companies myself!

At one point this business unit that they are closing was responsible for a large portion of their revenue. I don’t know where they stand today for revenues, I liked to tell people 2009 was the best year for the company – since then – not so much. Things really did look promising in 2009…..

I tried while I was there – I did – originally I was going to leave in December of 2008, barely 6 months after I started. But I decided to tough it out a bit more. I had some fun while I was there, management issues aside. Learned a few things, had some good experiences, met some cool people/friends. Considering it was literally across the street from my apartment at the time, it was difficult to beat that kind of commute.

They laid some folks off in early 2011 too (can’t find news article) including two of my co-workers who both were begging to be laid off so they could collect unemployment.

Big surprise huh – anyway, I just look at the spin they put on the whole thing how it’s a good thing for customers, good thing for everyone that they are making this decision.

I came across another article, which I found amusing:

To be honest, we’d never heard of AudienceScience before, but it is indeed a global digital marketing/tech firm that houses offices ranging from the U.S. to India. [..]

A web site seemingly focused on advertising agencies, hadn’t even heard of them before.

I do own stock in the company – I only got it so I’d have a memento, I never bet anything on stock options.

We now take you back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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