Stick a Fork in Me....

EllisWyatt said:
I'm DONE!!!!:dance:

I just handed in my two weeks notice to my V.P. - April 30th will be my last day of w**k! I'm lighting my torch, and heading to the farm.

The last year has been brutal. But I have (had?) a good team of great people, and it helped to know that I was able to make things at least tolerable for them by serving as the B.S. filter. The only positive part of this last year is that it eliminated any doubt as to whether it was time to retire .

No OMY syndrome here!!!!!

YIPPEEE!!!!!!
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I quoted your original post only to remind you what you did and why you did it. Everything else just happened.

The BOD is sending this guy down because they realize the excrement is hitting the rotating blade. Also, they probably know or discussed who has a positive relationship with you which means your visitor wasn't picked at random or just happens to be coming to town.

The plan is probably to first see if you can be conviced to stay and bring most of the fleeing chickens back to the roost. Before the meeting, think about anything that might change your mind about retiring. Also, be aware that YOU are viewed as responsible for this debacle. The most likely result is that a transition period would be planned to rearrange their technical personnel so that you and the "disloyal" engineers can be made expendable ASAP. Once you become expendable, you will be gone. It's not likely you or anyone else will be told of this part of the plan. I've seen it done.

If you won't stay, you'll probably be asked to convince people to stay or transition more smoothly. Their fate is also sealed IMHO when the department is reconfigured. Let your conscience be your guide.
 
You are right that it is not a coincidence they are sending this guy - we have had several frank and open conversations in the past which proved to be very constructive.

The head office was aware when they sent the new President here that it was a problematic choice - he has a long history of being an.... well, fill in the blanks. Why the sent him here is a topic for discussion at another time. What I have accomplished while being here has made me fairly popular at the head office (our work made the subsidiary profitable for the first time, and increased profits every year for the last 3), so I'm not too worried about being made a scapegoat - and besides, if they do, it's no skin off my back - I'm outta here!

They may want to get me to stay or reconstruct the team, but I think that the probability is they would like an honest review of what led up to this and how to avoid it in the future. I've always been honest, straightforward and tried to be constructive, and have no reason to change now. It could be interesting, but did I mention - I'm outta here!!!!
 
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This is just getting good. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

popcorn.gif
 
Reading between the lines, the head office is the responsible party if they had any understanding of this President's issues before they assigned him.

If they are smart on the return trip they will lay before him a nicely worded letter of resignation to sign or a notice of termination for poor performance. Pick one envelope or the other. This, naturally, needs to be designed by corporate employment attorney.
 
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This is one of the more amusing things I have read in a while.
 
+1 - I'm loving the drama!!! Your head is in the right place - stay the course but try to provide candid and constructive input on why the natives are so restless.
 
Given the amount of influence you have in the company, I sure hope you were making a LOT of money there!
 
EW, you are in the drivers seat my friend. You have huge leverage at this moment in time that you may want to consider applying for positive results for your employees and the company. This could become very lucrative for you too if you play your cards right.
 
It's still developing. Last Friday, all the techs resigned. So now 100% of the technical team and 100% of the technical support staff have resigned.

Just got an E-mail that now two board members will be arriving tomorrow to talk with me.

If they were coming to try to stem the tide, they're too late - the tide has gone completely out.
 
There is nothing the President can say to the Board that puts this in a good light. If you have discussed your concerns with Board members earlier I wouldn't be inclined to step back in at any price, they ignored you concerns earlier - they own the problem.

The President must go. A Board member may need to step into that role until a replacement is found.

Will the loss of tech staff result in the loss of contracts? How does the Board meet the needs of the corporation without the institutional knowledge of the departing techs?

Here is what I might try: meet with each of the departing technical staff, find out if there is a leader in that group that they respect. After they announce the departure of the President offer those who resigned a generous bonus to come back with a new leader.

Amazing how empowering having skills in demand and the ability to buy health insurance is to employees.
 
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EllisWyatt said:
It's still developing. Last Friday, all the techs resigned. So now 100% of the technical team and 100% of the technical support staff have resigned.
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Where is everybody going? Large groups of people don't just all resign at once unless they have somewhere to go. The entire team can't be financially independent. Is a competitor stirring the pot by trying to hire away the entire group?
 
Well, at least now you for sure won't have any survivor's guilt. Who is left? The President, a janitor and a secretary?

If I were in your shoes I would be enormously tempted to take lunch with the directors, laugh my ass off, and tell them "I ****ing told you so."
 
Any Screenwriters in the House?

Let's see; this could be an entertaining made-for-TV movie.....the plot just gets thicker. "Everyman" in the audience gets that vicarious joy, watching entire departments march out the front door, heads held high. A befuddled president walks an empty hallway, poking his head into offices banked with untended computers.....monitors blank. Nobody is answering phones. No one answers his texts.

How many viewers (of such a show) have worked in places where they could only dream of such a scene. It's way more fun than water-cooler gossip!

:D
 
To answer some questions.... the only people left are the President, Treasurer, two junior technical staff who were sent here for training and the accounting staff.

No, there was no competitor behind the walk-out, but there was knowledge that there is a huge demand in the industry for top caliber personnel. The good news is that the technical team were all top-caliber, well-respected within the industry. All but one have had at least 1 offer already, one has had 6.

Ironically, maybe half are comfortably FI, but continue doing what we do because it is intellectually challenging and can be a lot of fun.
 
Hey EW,

It's after lunch time in New Orleans. What's the skinny?
 
Still in Houston - until 3pm Thursday, when I head home for good. Yippee!!!

We have dinner reservations at 7. The plane from doesn't land until 4; add an hour and half for customs/immigration, another hour to get across town......they're going to be exhausted, but they wanted to get together as soon as they landed. This is either going to be a very short conversation (with bourbon and a very nice meal) or a very late night (with bourbon, a very nice meal, followed by many rounds of schochu and sake). Either way, it could be interesting.
 
Watch out for that sake!

I am convinced that within that group was at least one who led the others to the exit. If that person could be convinced to come back and bring others that business group could be salvaged, otherwise they might as well close it down.
 
Brat said:
Watch out for that sake!

I am convinced that within that group was at least one who led the others to the exit. If that person could be convinced to come back and bring others that business group could be salvaged, otherwise they might as well close it down.
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They probably think that person was EW.
 
Apologies in advance - this is a rather long post..........

Had dinner last night. A bit too much schochu and sake, but not too bad.
They both thanked me for my service, expressed their regrets that it had come to the point where I decided to leave, and gave me a fine bottle of 21 y.o. Japanese Whisky as a sign of their appreciation. Very nice.

Early on, they asked if I would consider providing consultation services in the future, and I left the door open for occasional consulting.

Then the "what the F*** just happened:confused: And why:confused:?" discussion. So we spent the rest of the evening in open discussions about what happened, how it could have been avoided, and the majority of the time discussing what options the company has from here. I pointed out that - as I see it - the options were limited, and all viable options require a significant shift in corporate culture which we have not been able to accomplish in the past. Now that the situation has reached crisis stage, there is a slim (very slim) window of opportunity for these guys to push for some changes. They understood that if they are not successful, there is very little reason to keep this office open.

Overall a constructive evening. They totally understood that the technical team is gone and cannot be coaxed back, acknowledged that they had been warned that the frustration level was reaching critical mass as long as a year ago, but were unable to fix the issues we had discussed then, and thanked me for keeping the team together as long as I had.

So now I feel that I have checked off the last professional responsibility I have to them, and can move on with a clear conscience.

Let the Retirement Begin!!!!
 
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Certainly appears that this was one messed up situation. Poorly managed at the top to be so unaware of what was going on in the ranks. Is this a subsidiary of a larger entity? If so maybe it was too far out of sight out of mind to the home office.

In any case it sounds to me like the death clock has begun its countdown for this business.
 
Glad to hear that they celebrated your accomplishments rather than blaming you for the stampede out the door, or trying to guilt or browbeat you into coming back.
 
That was very classy of those executives.

If it is a Japanese firm expat assignments that last for more than a couple years are not plum positions, add to that the fact that by tradition the employment relationship is for a lifetime. If your President looses face he may well commit suicide. They have a cultural and management challenge.

In my experience Koreans and Chinese don't have those cultural issues.
 
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