HEY HO, HEY HO ....

Robert seems unhappy in his work, or, in his current workplace. He wrote, in his latest post:

That's a shame and, in my usual caring way I responded to one of his gripes in a comment:

" This suggests an extremely unhappy situation which in turn must mean that you are putting negativity into your workplace. I suggest you confront your bosses and co-workers properly, face to face in a manly way and get it resolved, otherwise leave. Your accusation of corruption by management doesn't carry weight when you freely admit that you "do as little as possible".

OK, that might seem a bit heavy handed and even unfair but, in most of life's situations you have to make a stand and take some personal responsibility for your circumstances. It is tougher nowadays I know, especially in this Covid world where there is so much uncertainty and little job security and guarantees of new employment so, if Robert does take my advice I certainly hope that he has prepared a soft landing for himself.

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I was thinking about this and of my particular work experiences and the things that I've done when jobs have ceased to be enjoyable. I've basically been unemployed now for 14 years, at least, I've not been employed in 'career work for the last 14 years, I 'retired' in 2007. I have during these 14 years worked for a few different companies in part-time work and on contract but have had no feeling of commitment to it.

I've been lucky to have enjoyed most of my working career and it has only been when the companies I worked for underwent structural and ownership changes that the enjoyment factor left and... so did I.

My first serious employment started in 1981 when I moved to Auckland. Before that, in Wellington I was doing casual work post university which I enjoyed but it wasn't a career. From 1981 until 1994 I worked my way up in a large wine, beer and spirit company in increasing positions of responsibility in sales, marketing and management. I loved this job, the people, the brands and the international travel and connections. Being a very large company however it was subject to mergers and takeovers with bigger New Zealand and international companies taking shares in it. This brought management changes with one particularly fuckwit of a chief executive who I had no affinity with at all. I was heading up a division of this company and made it known to this guy that I had no respect for his business ability or the way he dealt with people. Needless to say, when the opportunity for a redundancy came up I took it willingly and moved on.

I was quite good at what I did and was known in the industry so, after I resigned and before I had left the company, I was head hunted by another company which I joined in 1994 and stayed with until 2007 - again a 13 year stint. I really enjoyed this job which was a combination of sales, marketing and management and had fabulous global brands to work with and I did a lot of international travel. The people, experiences, contacts, product and challenges were great and I'm happy with my contribution. The rewards in salary, bonuses and share options were outstanding and made it easier to sit back over the last 14 years. Like that beer, wine and spirit company though, the wine company I worked for was taken over twice by major international players. 

The second owners, an American company were the worst. This giant company over the years has destroyed many outstanding wine companies from big ones down to family enterprises in New Zealand, Australia, USA and Europe in a drive to commercialise and commodify the wine industry. Shit is good and cheap shit is better could be their by-line. The chief executive who I liked and had worked directly for in the first 11 years of this company, was replaced by a yes man to the Americans. The American chief of Australasian operations he reported to, based in USA was an outstanding arsehole. He and I didn't see eye to eye. When I was on business in California in the USA  in 2007 I took a side trip to New York where he was based and had a meeting where basically I disagreed with everything he had to say. I knew what I was doing because - I had a prepared soft landing. This was due to the chief executive who I liked who, prior to the American takeover had written into his own and his direct reports contracts a very generous redundancy clause that effectively provided 18 months salary plus all benefits on leaving. Sure enough, not that much longer afterwards a 'restructure' of the company provided an opportunity for me to take a new position or activate the redundancy. Knowing that the Americans hated these redundancy clauses  and, taking a new position would leave me unprotected, I took the redundancy. I have no regrets at this as the company had radically changed and all of the good people I liked in New Zealand and internationally had or were, moving on. After I left the company had  a big turnover of marketers and ultimately all marketing and international sales operations were moved off-shore. 

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New Zealand, as they had done with Australia and the better USA wine companies and brands became a production point for cheaper commercial wine for the world. Don't get me wrong, this has been successful making them the largest seller of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and other varietals but more on a commercial or industrialised basis. The problem is though that the better and more interesting wines were mothballed.

After the end of my 'career' I took on some contract work and also  at different times worked for three different wine companies in senior sales and marketing roles. None of these proved satisfactory and I left.

In one the owners wanted me to create false sales forecasts and to build a massive and unachievable budget for the following year. I realised that this was because they were looking for tax losses on their vineyard operations to offset gains in the more lucrative property and financial brokering that was the main part of their business. I refused to do this and I left.

In another, which was a single owner business that had no future as it stood. I wrote a sensible business plan for growth and succession planning that the owner totally ignored. I left.

In the third the owners ego wasn't in keeping with the day to day capability of the operations. I wrote a strategic and business plan for the future which effectively cut out my position and called for two replacements. This was accepted and I left, quite happily.

In all three of those companies I wasn't happy with doing the job and took steps to get out. It's of no use, in a job. if you don't like it, to sit there grumbling quietly and being negative it's best to cut and run.

Oh, in the interests of full disclosure I should mention that during this time, my other half - The Old Girl has been going from strength to strength in her job, earns well and keeps me in a position that I like to be kept. She also really likes her job and is not yet considering retirement.