marko
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 9,275
Some recent threads sparked a few memories about people that you worked with who you thought of as friends only to find out differently. Over the years of working closely together, small formal barriers often break down and the relationship becomes a bit more personal. At the upper level you always suspect that they only laugh at your jokes because you're the boss, but it's easy to fool yourself.
I had been responsible for over 1800 people globally with 5 or 6 direct reports. When I retired, the people who I thought were friends, I never heard from again and, surprisingly, people who I believed didn't care are still in contact. Funny how that is sometimes.
But here is a brutal illustration:
After the acquiring company finally let me go (a hilarious story I've shared here a few times), there was some "Where will he go? Will he take me with him?" from the crowd.
One of my former reports who I had mentored and worked with very closely for over 15 years invited me skiing at his house in [a world famous Colorado ski resort]. Nice. I had often called him "the son I never had" and we always got along great.
A nice dinner, some scotch and a great next day skiing. Early morning and first chair the second day: we're riding the chairlift and he casually says "so when are you going back to work?". I hesitated about 10 seconds, grimaced and said "mmm, y'know Mike, I think I'm done. Unless something really interesting comes along, I'm not going back to work".
Amazingly, about 2 minutes later, before we even reached the end of the lift, he suddenly "remembered" that he had a phone meeting in an hour and had to get back to the house. It was like a switch being flipped. "You keep skiing and I'll catch up later". Two hours later he calls me saying he has to fly back to New York right away but "I left the key for you and enjoy the house for the next few days".
I never saw him again.
I had been responsible for over 1800 people globally with 5 or 6 direct reports. When I retired, the people who I thought were friends, I never heard from again and, surprisingly, people who I believed didn't care are still in contact. Funny how that is sometimes.
But here is a brutal illustration:
After the acquiring company finally let me go (a hilarious story I've shared here a few times), there was some "Where will he go? Will he take me with him?" from the crowd.
One of my former reports who I had mentored and worked with very closely for over 15 years invited me skiing at his house in [a world famous Colorado ski resort]. Nice. I had often called him "the son I never had" and we always got along great.
A nice dinner, some scotch and a great next day skiing. Early morning and first chair the second day: we're riding the chairlift and he casually says "so when are you going back to work?". I hesitated about 10 seconds, grimaced and said "mmm, y'know Mike, I think I'm done. Unless something really interesting comes along, I'm not going back to work".
Amazingly, about 2 minutes later, before we even reached the end of the lift, he suddenly "remembered" that he had a phone meeting in an hour and had to get back to the house. It was like a switch being flipped. "You keep skiing and I'll catch up later". Two hours later he calls me saying he has to fly back to New York right away but "I left the key for you and enjoy the house for the next few days".
I never saw him again.