Resume, Job Help, & Job/Career Advice

I'm firing one of the heads of one of my departments. It's the first person I'm firing myself in this company who didn't leave or had to leave because we ran out of money on a project. I can't remember every single person I sent packing anymore but this is the 5th team in 3 countries and by my standards of turning over 40 to 50 percent of the staff before the operation is fixed I am quite behind at more than 7 months on the job.

This is the first piece of a series of dominoes. I've always been characterized and described as a heartless corporate bastard but my patience has worn thin and even though I'm planning for the XXth immediate walk out the door termination it is something that weighs on me every time I make this type of decision.

If you tried that tactic over here, you'd be the one getting sacked.

In the dynamic job market of the EU zone a staff position trumps everything. A golden ticket for organisational abuse. You have zero chance of getting rid without resorting to expensive lawyers looking to maximize their hourly costs on the ''negotiation'' ticket - what's a couple of hundred thousand here or there? - or you may get lucky with the help of the Ethics Committee.
 
I just made my first hire onto my team. I think I made a good choice, but it’s government so if I’m wrong it’s going to be hard getting rid of them once the 6 month probation is done.

Is it a her?
 
If you tried that tactic over here, you'd be the one getting sacked.

In the dynamic job market of the EU zone a staff position trumps everything. A golden ticket for organisational abuse. You have zero chance of getting rid without resorting to expensive lawyers looking to maximize their hourly costs on the ''negotiation'' ticket - what's a couple of hundred thousand here or there? - or you may get lucky with the help of the Ethics Committee.

We made a number of the staff redundant when I was in London. One funny part was when they challenged it the wanker brought his mother in to give a testimonial. I left after 18 months so I didn't know the repercussions.
 
We made a number of the staff redundant when I was in London. One funny part was when they challenged it the wanker brought his mother in to give a testimonial. I left after 18 months so I didn't know the repercussions.

That kind of stunt wouldn't have washed in the old England before the EU got hold of the employment laws. No one would have dared.

An associate of mine here, when announced he was going through the redundancy process, played them and won on the ticket that he would never work again on account he held no university, college, or technical qualification and couldn't speak Dutch and so, he would be completely unemployable in the Dutch job market. He's still there working or pretending to work.
 
That kind of stunt wouldn't have washed in the old England before the EU got hold of the employment laws. No one would have dared.

An associate of mine here, when announced he was going through the redundancy process, played them and won on the ticket that he would never work again on account he held no university, college, or technical qualification and couldn't speak Dutch and so, he would be completely unemployable in the Dutch job market. He's still there working or pretending to work.

You keep bringing cases of these people up. Honestly if someone paid me what they paid me now to pretend to work because I got banished into corporate exile I would simply quit. I'd go mental. My father spoke of a director who was transferred to a department of no one and given a secretary ages ago. This was the part of the company you were sent to when you were put out to pasture. He hung on for a year or two doing bugger all. It reminds me a bit of where Roger Sterling ended up in Mad Men; the floor of geriatric executives.

Even if you were to live through some period of this purgatory you emerge out of it less fit and able to compete in the workforce so what's the point except you earned some easy cash.
 
You keep bringing cases of these people up. Honestly if someone paid me what they paid me now to pretend to work because I got banished into corporate exile I would simply quit. I'd go mental. My father spoke of a director who was transferred to a department of no one and given a secretary ages ago. This was the part of the company you were sent to when you were put out to pasture. He hung on for a year or two doing bugger all. It reminds me a bit of where Roger Sterling ended up in Mad Men; the floor of geriatric executives.

Even if you were to live through some period of this purgatory you emerge out of it less fit and able to compete in the workforce so what's the point except you earned some easy cash.

But these people I bring up are not point men, or possessed by a sense of urgency to get ahead or pride in their profession. These are the plodders and do the bare minimums who fit-in to the corporate scheme to allow others to leap-frog ahead of them. They expect to rewarded in any case. Under certain processes and protected by being staff and legislation they can in the end hold more sway and power than the able.
 
But these people I bring up are not point men, or possessed by a sense of urgency to get ahead or pride in their profession. These are the plodders and do the bare minimums who fit-in to the corporate scheme to allow others to leap-frog ahead of them. They expect to rewarded in any case. Under certain processes and protected by being staff and legislation they can in the end hold more sway and power than the able.

What about status, self-worth and respect for themselves?
 
I have this management consultant doing a review of my organisation. I am positive one of the things he will cite is I don't work with staff 2 or 3 levels down. Hopefully he doesn't write me up like the UK director after I left London - I only speak to my direct reports and if you need to speak to me, speak through them.

Honestly I hope he doesn't paint me as a condescending toff.
 
I have this management consultant doing a review of my organisation. I am positive one of the things he will cite is I don't work with staff 2 or 3 levels down. Hopefully he doesn't write me up like the UK director after I left London - I only speak to my direct reports and if you need to speak to me, speak through them.

Honestly I hope he doesn't paint me as a condescending toff.

In these enlightened times you may well be painted as a reactionary force of male privilege. Also white if you are indeed, white. Add them all together and you need to start pointing to some Alberta pipeline welder as the source of all white male privilege in Canada.

Whilst I agree with the adage that you cannot run with the fox and hounds, codes of ethical business practices alone, mean you should always be approachable to anyone who has concerns or has stumbled upon something not quite legitimate.

I say hello to everyone and will engage with small talk with all who work in the organisation from the cleaner to the SME's. Of course, in mega-organisations where there are lots of hungry graduates looking to get ahead and perhaps at the expense of their line manager, I would never ever be alone with them for more than a few seconds in case they launched any kind of sexual harassment case against me.
 
II am positive one of the things he will cite is I don't work with staff 2 or 3 levels down. Hopefully he doesn't write me up like the UK director after I left London - I only speak to my direct reports and if you need to speak to me, speak through them.

The organisation I previously worked for had about 35,000 staff. I worked in a smaller area, albeit with a geographically dispersed team, that was mainly comprised of mid-level staff. We hardly ever spoke directly with our General Manager (two levels above us), let alone with our National Manager (three levels above us, two levels below the head of the organisation). Every year or two there would be an all-staff survey and the organisation always rated very poorly for things such as trust in management, communication etc. As a result, every year or two there would be a flurry of visits from the GM or NM to various sites so as to "touch base" and "get some 180 degree feedback" or some similar stuff.

The organisation I work in now is much, much smaller - less than 300 people. The difference is remarkable - people two or three levels below me will walk into the GM's office to discuss work (so will freely talk with someone 5-6 levels above them in the structure), and our NM comes to visit our site every month or two and takes the time to chat with each of us. It's not surprising that, as a result, staff engagement and satisfaction is far, far higher.
 
My office door is always open. I insist on it. I only close it when my boss rings me on my mobile and I put speaker phone on so I don't disturb the staff out there.

I wear a suit and tie in an office where business casual is dressy so I come off as intimidating to the staff. To be honest some of the individual contributors I have taken on trips or hit the bar and we develop a rapport. The ones I haven't bonded with I don't normally talk to them on a day to day basis but if there's a crisis I personally step in and lead them. Of course my engagement surveys say they've lost connection to the executives and the strategy of the firm.
 
I wear a suit and tie in an office where business casual is dressy so I come off as intimidating to the staff.

If you wear a white shirts, try blue shirts instead. I notice that blue shirts give off a more warmth and empathic vibe. Stark white shirts good for commercial negotiations or when you want to strike fear into a rival.
 
I change my suits, shirts and ties based on what I'm doing that day. Official executive team meetings, presentations and what not and I will go with my usual dark suit, white shirt, dark tie. Blue shirts I reserve for I'm in meetings with people in my own department, it's Friday or I'm not in general going to anything high profile. I used to have patterned shirts but as I've been on and off the road with a limited number of suits at my disposal I find plain white and various plain blue are the easiest to pair up.

Perhaps a little OCD, I plan all of it on the Sunday before the week. It's even more imperative now that I travel every week for work.
 
They want me as part of the X person sales team to make a pitch on Wednesday to a UK bank. I'm brought in at the very last minute. Never did any pitch outside of the company as I'm always in the back office.
 
Do people toss the office supplies of their predecessors and start anew or do you start using them? Staplers, pens, baskets, etc.
 
When I was back in Blighty I decided to go for a walk and this particular path took me through and past the local golf course. To my surprise the greens and fairways were overgrown and the club house completely dilapidated.

I was told that several nearby golf courses are also either closed or near bankruptcy.

At the party of my sister's step daughter, a very fancy house, both in pharmaceutical sales (what a great game financially to be in), her husband was complaining that they can't entertain anymore - no lunches, evening meals, bottles of whisky at Christmas and golf days.

Later I aked my brother, and it seems that the same anti-corporate hospitality culture has infected other industries, not only my own. He said golf is dying a death, other than the elite courses, as most men only have an hour for a bit of cycling and not a full 18 hole golf course. Now that we look after the kids as well.

For me it really should be academic, as I am seriously crap at golf. But I can remember the glory days back in the 1990s when a golf handicap was a big boost to your career. And all those mega projects were there would be a golf afternoon at least once a week and several tournaments throughout the project. The chosen golf players would be out on the company pay cheque having a damn good time.

I can also remember when oil & gas, and engineering construction projects had decent entertainment team building budgets for those lower down in the hierarchy, a couple of times during the life of the project with zero inhibitions on getting completely pissed and was expected. As long as you turned up next day for work.

All that's gone now and hence the demise of some of these golf clubs. Whilst I still get my entertainment kicks in with clients and hangers on with museums, art galleries and fancy restaurants, plus premium bottles of spirits - I admire the sheer audacity of those days when connections, personal relationships, whore buddies and golf handicaps trumped a great many things. Such an opportunistic time for those who dared....and could play golf.
 
My regional CxO just told me last night he organises a six figure retreat to Pebble Beach every year...for the golfing. EVP and above invited.
 
Maybe it’s me, but golf still seems to be a very male, Caucasian sport. Not that sales or executive teams still aren’t skewed to that demographic, but with the growing diversity (and youth) in the workplace you get fewer golfers.
 
Not bad if you can get invited

I was invited to TPC Sawgrass once. Golf, dinner, drinks and hotel all included. The only thing I had to do was fly there. But I declined. I think you need a caddy to play that course?

Maybe it’s me, but golf still seems to be a very male, Caucasian sport. Not that sales or executive teams still aren’t skewed to that demographic, but with the growing diversity (and youth) in the workplace you get fewer golfers.

There are plenty of women only tournaments in the insurance industry. And women do come out to company golf events - although in lesser numbers than men. I don't see ethnicity being an issue. Brown and oriental all come but first generation immigrants usually never had a chance to play as a child. Whites can say they've been golfing since 5.

The only thing I can say is golf is getting longer and longer. The nearly 5 hour round on a busy day is scaring away people especially the younger demographic.
 
One of my peers said I assembled a bunch of great individuals. They're all great people individually. But they don't work as a team.

Part of it might be my Trump style of playing people off one another and promoting competition.

How do I promote this without mindless kumbaya exercises?
 
Care to elaborate some concrete steps besides taking them to see the game?
well the 76'ers are a team of stars that cannot play well together. the raptors are a team of nobodies that produces stars out of nothing and can deal with adversity no matter who is playing.

basically everyone has to be in it for a shared goal rather than themselves. how to accomplish that with a bunch of self-serving middle managers is not going to be easy. incentives? bonuses?
 
well the 76'ers are a team of stars that cannot play well together. the raptors are a team of nobodies that produces stars out of nothing and can deal with adversity no matter who is playing.

basically everyone has to be in it for a shared goal rather than themselves. how to accomplish that with a bunch of self-serving middle managers is not going to be easy. incentives? bonuses?

I don't think money can change that kind of behaviour. Money can prod people to amplify their behaviour to get results.

I was checking my usual management podcast and they said lack of trust is the issue. However going to an off-site where you "learn" trust is rubbish. They said you need to practise it day in and day out.

Anyway, another one left so it's almost an all new crew now.
 
It appears my time in this job will be ending and I just got a call from a friendly across the pond to consider a post in Europe or APAC.
 
It appears my time in this job will be ending and I just got a call from a friendly across the pond to consider a post in Europe or APAC.
i can't tell so i hope this isn't insensitive. are you getting fired, laid off, quitting, or reassigned in the company?
 
Why did you edit that stuff on Fwiffo fitting in as the archetypal middle ex-pat in Dubai?

Although my company has operations in EMEA - this friendly was only responsible for Europe so for me no option for Dubai.

i can't tell so i hope this isn't insensitive. are you getting fired, laid off, quitting, or reassigned in the company?

My role becomes regionalised by next summer. Too many of us CxOs around so they want to reduce overhead and have one person for Americas. The subsidiary I am attached to was also struggling financially and because of the current coronavirus rubbish, the friendly hinted we may be looking at offloading underperforming units so I am guessing if I stay in that situation I would be thrown overboard and become a corpse bouncing off the hull. There are only two remaining entities in other lines of businesses in my country and they are too small to ingest someone like me so I was basically told if I want to stay with the group, I need to leave Canada.

I was also advised to check with my boss but I had never considered a post in the US because I assumed my boss would return to Europe one day. I didn't fancy being around when a new regime takes over and I exist only because of the old regime. The choices would be VA, MN, IL, and CA.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom