Catching up - Part I
It's been ages since I've made a substantial post on anything apart from hooping. For one thing, it's a lot easier to write about than what's been happening at work over the past several months. There's so much of it. With all the stress and upheaval, I've gotten off my game with pretty much everything. Time to get back on the horse again, and that includes updating this daggum blog, so here we go....
In June we acquired three companies while we were also closing our fiscal year, were dealing with a frustratingly counterintuitive new version of our accounting system and in the middle of an extremely rigorous internal corporate audit. We didn't have a lot of brain space left to wonder what the acquisitions would mean for us. Very steadily since our merger with GRM a few years ago, we'd become a company whose upper management rarely communicated with its accounting department apart from demanding reports. My boss was increasingly frustrated at receiving less and less info, so he demanded a meeting, and boy howdy did we we get one.
Two days after 4th of July weekend, the CFO called the finance staff into a face-to-face meeting. He'd rarely acknowledged our existance since the GRM merger and especially after they sacked my old boss (that was two bosses ago), so this was like seeing a unicorn. After a 20-minute speech about the great things our company would be doing, and the great finance staff we'd be getting from the acquisitions, he asked if we had any questions.
We told him that we couldn't help noticing all the people leaving the Durham office with no push for recruiting locally as had been intended, wanted to know if the office lease would be renewed, and whether our jobs were safe. He said that we needn't worry about the lease. Then more talk about Great Company Things. Then FINALLY he said that "the accounting functions" would be moving up to DC. I asked him to be more specific. Then it came out. My boss would be gone by the end of September and Accounts Payable would be given the option of moving to DC or loooking for new jobs by the end of September. All of us would be under new managers effective immediately. One of the Accounts Payable girls started to cry. Over ten years with the company. First long-term job she'd ever had. Single mother. Three kids. Zero child support. Also the sole support of her pregnant sister who is living with her. And she'd just bought a house last year.
Then he put the HR director on speakerphone. They told us we'd have plenty of help with resumes and references, and he said that he cared about us all. You could see that he meant it, which surprisingly did help, but damn. I had more than a glimmer of hope. My new boss actually carries some weight in the company and her decisions and actions are (omg) logical. I'd been for all intents and purposes working with her team for months, since my now ex-boss had been basically useless from day one. The CFO told me and the treasurer quite pointedly that we should call our new managers immediately. I knew that there was a good chance he and I would be allowed to work from home in NC, but I wasn't 100% certain.
At the end of the meeting we all scattered immediately. The two AP girls went for a walk. The treasury manager headed off somewhere with his phone and I went next door to The Federal to grab a soda and call Gary. Then the AP girls saw me on their way back and headed over. We saw Steve looking us and waved him over. I told everyone to get a drink. We talked for a while and then called my now ex boss and the Durham IT dude to join us. It was a good bonding moment for us all. Ex boss went in to pay his tab and leave. When I went in to pay the tab, they told me that he'd picked up the check for our table.
When logged in at home, I found that I had emails, Skype messages and voicemail from my new boss. Her voice was choked with emotion. I told her that there was no way I'd be able to move to DC. She said that she wanted me to know as soon as possible that my job was safe and that she was fine with me working from home and that Steve would also be allowed to work from home. I was actually pretty excited about my new situation and relieved for Steve (single income family man with three kids), but the survivor's guilt hit me like a tidal wave. I barely got any sleep for several days. Meanwhile we were up to our eyeballs in the month-end close and a team of auditors would be camped in our office for the next two weeks.