On 02 January of this year, doing my now semi-regular check of the status of the company that created the layoff called Hammerfall 2.0 (which indirectly lead to New Home 2.0), I came across the following notice:
"Thank you for visiting the website for <Former Employer> ("Company"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company formerly based in New Home. The Company is no longer operating. Any questions may be submitted to <FormerEmployer@Fomer.com>.
Previous SEC filings for the company may be found at <The place you find such things>.
Correspondence can also be sent to <Former Employer>, Small Office Complex, Somewhere, United States."
That is it. A company history of something like 15 years - 6.5 years of my own life - hundreds of millions of dollars - all gone except for a web page and assets to be liquidated.
The hours we spent there. The amount of work. The sacrifices of sleep and emotion. The things that had to be done - right then - because they were the most important thing in the world, because our bosses told us so.
All gone.
I try and tell the young ones of this, that a company will ask everything of you and will let you go at the drop of a hat, that while doing good work is important and you should always avail yourself of every opportunity you can, never give the company everything. Because sometime - it happens to most of us anymore - all of your efforts and emotions and sweat will disappear without a trace.
Sic transit gloria mundi - Thus passes the glory of this world.
Memento mori
ReplyDeleteThe concept of “remembering death” is expressed throughout ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates states that the sole purpose of practicing philosophy “is to practice for dying and death.” Rather than being a morbid directive, the statement espouses mastering one’s fear of death by recognizing the body’s mortal reality and pursuing knowledge, which nurtures the immortal soul.
The Stoics taught the virtue of keeping death at the forefront of one’s thoughts as a reminder that nothing is permanent. In his letters Seneca advocated living every day “as a complete life” and advised, “Let us compose our thoughts as if we’ve reached the end. Let us postpone nothing. Let’s settle our accounts with life every day.” In the Encheiridion, Epictetus wrote, “If you are kissing your child or wife, say that it is a human being whom you are kissing, for when the wife or child dies, you will not be disturbed.” According to the Stoics, by meditating on death’s inevitability, one can live more fully in the present moment.
Even business fall prey to mortality.
Too often we are framed by what we do for a living.
Live each day to completely finish it.
Michael - The Penguin edition "The Last Days of Socrates" which includes Euthyphro, The Apology of Socrates, Crito, and Phaedo, remains one of my favorites. And you never get an argument about quoting Seneca or Epictetus here.
DeleteSadly though, this business did not only fall prey to mortality. I fell prey to a series of poor decisions complicated by senior management forgetting their most basic of tasks - make a product that gets to market - and served all kinds of other masters.
Yahor maybe $ $$
ReplyDeleteHit the wrong key this morning during editing though the above comment illustrates my mental alertness now.....:) Read somewhere on the InterNets yesterday that business bankruptcies were approaching those of 2008-2010.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - Heh heh. Happens to the best of us.
DeleteThe one "current news site" I follow is dailyjobcuts.com. While it is always hard to really say how much a job site that only focuses on job cuts reflects the real world, the announcements are regular and somewhat concerning as to their number and breadth.
A number of things - mostly spending by both sides of the Aisle - is catching up with us.
Amen Brother. I gave my 20's and half of my 30's to Globocorps. The stock price took a dive and the model said cut heads and they cut heads even though our business unit was a money printer. This among the so-called "elites". I didn't get rich. I didn't have a family. I did't build anything for myself outside of the reputation and relationships of the globocorp hive.
ReplyDeleteWhen I opted to never go back, I became a non-person to those relationships as my utility went to nil once they all figured out I would not be providing them business, connections, network value, etc.
I started a couple of businesses on my own and with partners. I put 4 years of start up work and R&D in to one only to end up in the same culture of psychopaths, narcissists, and vampire opportunists. I walked away with nothing. I could have litigated. But that briar patch is also "theirs".
All we have in the end are those we love and those who love us. Build a wide variety of skills that are useful - mostly to your own hearth and home, and you will find ways to trade that for value. Build relationships in meatspace with others who share this tack and who live their principles. A lot gets said, very little gets done.
Finally, orient your heart to work. There is no "hack", something for nothing, arbitrage, financial scheme, crypto, or "passive income" path to the contentment of life. We all have our lot and our toil. Find the simple joy of work - and marvel in our time that for all intents is still one of great ease and abundance, but prepare for austerity. All that materialism is meaningless. Do not get trapped gripping that rice when the club comes around.
Anon - Thanks for your comment.
DeleteIt is interesting how quickly we "fall off the earth" when suddenly we are no longer in that race, or even if we make clear that we are only going to be giving 40 hours or so a week. In the best of cases, there is a disinterested understanding. At worst, there is a removal from any and all chances of "moving forward".
In a similar vein to "what I have in my possession I own", having the skills that you can put to work is in a variety of places is the same. Invest in your mind (essentially yourself), said Benjamin Franklin, and no-one can take that from you.
Anon-above- This has to be one of the best comments on the web about work and life and skills.
Delete"never give the company everything" is about the best advice one can give to a newly employed person. I only do that for family.
ReplyDeleteEd, agreed - although it is always hard to strike a bit of a balance with new people in their careers especially: they really want to "do their best" and start off with bang. It is certainly admirable and I appreciate their enthusiasm. I just try to remind them that there is no incentive for the company to scale back their demands; they will always want more, not less.
DeleteI got mine young. After working on USDA cotton samples all winter (ginning, acid delinting, weighing, bagging, cataloging), we planted in the spring. Enough seeds for about 10 feet of row per sample. About 6 acres total. Cotton was 4 inches high when a hailstorm wiped it all out. I stood in the mud, looking at the destruction and a thought was injected into my head, "You must be about the Father's business."
ReplyDeleteI lost that bit by bit until the sickness. Then, it hit me again. Only now, I'm a few loaves and fishes. But in His hands....
STxAR - Something like you describe would indeed be the sort of moment that emblazoned itself on one's mind.
DeleteAnd yes, I firmly believe we keep "coming back" to the same lesson until we are ready to learn it and move on. God is patient that way.
I always get something from you and/or the comments and today's are especially rich. I scratched "All we have in the end are those we love and those who love us" in my journal immediately, and some of these other thoughts are well worth reflection. Oddly, I have a strong sense that "Yahor maybe $ $$" would make a great name for a book or a novel, although for now it escapes me what kind of book it would be.
ReplyDelete