Illegitimi Non Carborundum
Out for my daily morning constitutional with the dog this morning, and ran into one of the neighbours whom I see sometimes walking his dogs, and exchange pleasantries. I know he’s been looking around the market of late, and asked him if he’d landed any bites.
“No, and actually things are getting a bit heated up there, not good.”
“What’s going on?”
“I had a meeting the other day with the new big boss and the head of HR, and was told I had three things to improve on.”
“Which were?”
“I had to communicate better directly to the boss, which I was told I wasn’t doing. Also told I had to anticipate better, be more proactive and that my overall work quality had to be raised.”
“Anything positive? Sounds they tore into you..”
“Considering my performance review was above average and had gotten a decent bonus last year, it’s a bit confusing. It’s getting a bit political there.”
(I should add that my friend is very good at the art of understatement..)
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m thinking about my options. Obviously I’d love to get out.”
“Agreed, but in the interim, who can give you some cover, who’s going to sing your praises and diplomatically come to your defense?”
I figured that was a logical question–for me, anyhow. He looked at me, pondered it as we walked the dogs, and shook his head.
“I’m not sure.”
“You’ve been there long enough, you’ve clearly gotten good reviews, there must be some people willing to go to bat for you and at least buy you some time and capital.”
Again he looked at me and couldn’t really think of anyone who had enough clout or presence to do so.
“I think they just want me out,” he said. “I suppose he prefers someone who is not a foreigner, and after all, I’m an easy target if they need to cut their costs and localise.”
I wished him well and told him to let me know if anything I could do, and we went our separate ways.
He might have a point about localising, but a slender one at best. The bigger issue is indeed the company politics, and that he has not built up his alliances at the firm. From the outside I can’t say with too much clarity, but my guess is that if he is a target, it is because he has spent more of his time working than building his relationships. When the corporate turret guns are aimed, their aim is proportional to who has cover and who is a target. We’ve all been there..
Lessons to learn:
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Written by Neal Horwitz, MD of Henry Hale Maguire
