Your article " So Much For Helping Morale ," really hit home with me. The same thing happened to me over a year ago, and yes, I am still bitter. I was an account manager at one of the top GIS/Mapping c ompanies. As a rookie, I was the leader in sales. After about six months on the job I found out my company was about to be bought by one of our competitors. Instinct told me this was the end, but, of course my boss assured me, and 100 others, nothing would happen and so did the CEO of the buying company a month later.

Well, the day finally came. We were all brought into a room with two boxes loaded with packages. We were told by HR that some of us would be let go, but, the packages would be handed out in alphabetical order so that no one would know who was staying who was going. However, the disgraceful thing was those two boxes were very different. The first box emptied contained "you're still here papers" the second box emptied contained "see ya" papers. Then, the "see ya" group was told to stay in the room while the rest could leave. That wasn't all, they then told us we could not leave the room without an escort or say goodbye to anyone; we had to go home and come back tomorrow to get our things. I felt terrible for the shocked people in the room with me, plus extreme anger. No one expected to come to work today to find out that they now must leave suddenly with an escort. So many were humiliated to tears. It wasn't over, though. Fortunately I knew what was going to happen days before so I was able to clean my desk and empty my hard drive. Others were not so lucky. The buying company sent their people into the offices of the "let go" people to rummage through and take all the data of their PCs. I was amazed; is this legal? They came after me asking where all the data was on my hard drive and why my desk was empty. I said I deleted it and emptied everything from my desk days before and asked what were they going to do about it. They left me alone.

We were then told we had to attend an exit class. They actually lectured to us not to be bitter and move on! Weeks later I was still trying to get unemployment approval but HR kept screwing up my papers, it also took months for me to get my final commissi on check. I finally got it because I threatened them with legal action. I even called some of the people still there, who were friends at the time, to see how they were. They wouldn't speak with me. I'd love to know what they were told. Many times I've thought about going after them legally, not just for me, but for the 80 others that were humiliated, some so badly they still are brought to tears when they discuss it.

I'd like to make public the names of the company and people responsible, but, then I would be playing their game, too, I suppose. Any advice?

Sincerely,
Christopher Neff

Dear Christopher:

There is really nothing that I can add to your letter, except to say that those morons at your former company probably have a mission statement about people being their most important asset. I wonder how they would feel if a member of their family were treated the way that you and your fellow sufferers wer e.

As to your question about giving your ex-employer a little bit of free advertising about their employment practices: I would not fixate on what happened to you. You owe it to yourself to concentrate on making a success of your present job and showing those dolts that you didn't need them. On the other hand, I think you would be doing everyone a favor if you had no qualms about sharing your experiencesÑso long as you do it in the proper context and do not belabor the point.

With respect to "So Much For Helping Morale": Right on!

When I decided to leave my last CIO job, the powers-that-be asked me to leave immediately and they made the announcement to my staff. Everyone thought I had been ill-treated. Result? Thirty of eighty staff resigned in the first year. Big client-server project now 1 1/2 years late, and who knows if it will ever see the light of day? Why do executives do such stupid things? F irst, they impute their own bad motives to others. Second, they think employees are stupid and can't figure out what's really happening. End result: Lots of new consultants!

Rodger

Dear Rodger:

Isn't denial wonderful? The same management that will criticize their CIO for an inability to communicate with the business or understand the company direction doesn't have a clue as to what the IS people think or feel. As a result, they lose a lot of the IS staff and then no doubt wind up talking about the lack of loyalty of the IS types. Hey, they should be thankful that they have an IS staff that is smart enough to recognize what is happening. Sounds like it never occurred to the leaders that you just may have built a few relationships in your own shop. As to why they do something so stupidÑit's because they aren't very bright.

For almost two years I was a contractor for a company's IT department, and just recently was hired by this company as a Technical Support Analyst. It is a very small department (5 people) with one of those being the IT Coordinator. There is no manager at this time. The prospect has come up for me to take over the roll of IT Coordinator, and I have been asked to come up with a plan for bringing the department "together".

Two members of the staff have been with the department for 20+ years and have seen it through mainframe years, data entry, and have home-grown many of the systems that are being replaced. They are trying to be a part of the new technologies that are being implemented (Microsoft BackOffice). I was contracted to install, configure, and implement this new platform for them while the other two staff members support the legacy systems that have not yet been turned off.

The main issues with the department are in the way it is structured and the way that people's skills and areas of respons ibility have been assigned. As you can probably figure out, I have all the "new" stuff and they have the "old". As a group effort we have tried to reassign areas of responsibility and have also found that when push comes to shove, the two "lifers" want the glory, but don't really want the hard work that the new systems involve (learning, training, and supporting).

Currently, my opinion is that the two "lifers" want to have things be the way they have always been. That does not surprise me at all. I have read several articles on the changing strategies for today's IT/IS departments, and would like to get your opinion of this situation.

I am faced with providing my own opinion as to how I would "fix" this department. My only observation thus far is that the "lifers" are not "multi-tasking" people. They are trying to break up the new technologies into single items, and make a formal task out of any one item, and then structure their man-hour requirements around that. They are trying to keep things struct ured the way they have always done things. They are also very opposed to contracting skilled persons to get things done.

I think I am up to the task. I have been in similar situations with different platforms, but this seems to have special circumstances surrounding it. Oh yeah, did I include the fact that one of the "lifers" used to be the department manager?

Thanks for your time. I think your column is great!

Dave Jacobs

Dear Dave,

Let's see if I've got the situation straight. First of all, you're the new guy. Two people have been there for more than twenty years and one of them is the former department manager. They are working on supporting all of the home-grown systems which you have been hired to make obsolete. Your philosophy of doing systems work is different from theirs. Company management has asked you for a plan to bring the department together, but has not made you the manager.

Suggestion: try al ligator wrestling. The odds of success are better. Hey Dave, what is the likelihood that they are going to cooperate with you in making obsolete the systems that keep them employed? The bosses expect you to bring the department together? What for, the pleasure of watching mortal combat?

Talk to your boss. Explain that the people interactions are essentially impossible unless you have a) formal authority, and, b) external maintenance dollars in case the old-timers decide to bail out or to cause serious problems. Then sit with the people and try as hard as you can to get their support, even if you have to accept that they may just know a thing or two about what is going on that you do not. You need their help.

If you are not able, or willing, to do these things, my advice is to run, not walk, to the nearest exit. You are sitting on a disaster waiting to happen. If the big balloon goes up, will the bosses support you or the guys who are keeping the critical systems running? It's not a good bet for you to take. On the other hand, if you are able to pull this off without making peace with the troops or getting some authority, Wow!

My hope is that you are able to get the backing of the boss and you also are able to build a good relationship with the old-timers. Good luck.

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