I was in a conversation with a recruitment company last week and we talked about what happens when a company closes or announces it will close. We chatted about a few instances of big brand names and the affect the closure had on people. One of the most high profile and contentious closures in the recent past was the Waterford Crystal factory in Waterford. It got very ugly with protests and rows. A highly successful company with a deep connection to Ireland was closing its doors....and that was it. Kerrygold, Guinness, Waterford Crystal were three of the big internationally recognized Irish brands at the time. Ryanair and many others have joined that list since.
One of the features of the Waterford Crystal closure that was evident in the public domain was its niche skill set of craftsmanship and the other was, of course, the long years of service that its staff had given.
For some people when the doors are closed at a workplace, they can just move on. "That's over, what next?". For many it's not like that. We form relationships with colleagues - ones we enjoy and ones we don't - some become friends socially too. Companies and organizations encourage their staff to learn about loyalty to customers, colleagues, products and services. Many step up and now it's more than just a series of tasks for them. They get invested. Many eschew personal events, spend time in the markets meeting with customers and chose to prioritise those instead of pastimes and events. The mindset is - this is a big brand so it's time to act. Many form deep attachments with brands (after all, they were involved in fixing the problems) more so than companies, and feel the success when it's going well and work even harder when it's not. It's a change managed. #Managingchange.
What we do know, is that some people struggle to move on. I've a friend who spent 40 years - her entire working life - in a company in Cork and then the announcement came. All her life from leaving education to participating in her way in to the growth of that company. And she took tremendous pride in being able to say - I work for XXXXXX. Usually met by "I'd love to work there, I hear x,y and z are great! She can't say that anymore and feel the pride that goes with it.
Two years have passed since the announcement, and it's only now that she uses the past tense - she went through a long period of saying "we" and "us" when talking about that company as if it wasn't really over, waking up at exactly the same time for months except she wasn't in her car at 7:30 AM with a coffee in her hand and a "nightmare" meeting ahead of her at 9 AM. Now in conversation she says "in XXXXXX, they used to do x, y, x and z.". And conversations about that place of work are less frequent. She started to move on. And we, her friends just listened and shared similar stories.
It took her a while to come to terms with it. It's one of the great contradictions in careers. We are encouraged to become part of a culture with all its positives and negatives, and to go "all in". We are a family - yet families don't have binding legal contracts.
We can keep a type of mental distance in acknowledging the contract is there, by questioning company decisions and then discussing them amongst trusted colleagues. Those discussion groups almost become support groups - and the closure affects that group too. Groups, teams, colleagues, organizations - a social infrastructure that will change. All part of it. The push to be "a family" is a big one.
I've another friend who was loyal to his employment contract and put in the hours but was always sceptical and would often say "this is rubbish, it can't go on" when talking about company decisions or changes. Yet there are mortgages to pay, kids to raise and the years passed and then the announcement. There was still some need met by the company. A need to be met in the future. Did he feel justified in the end, and what can he take from it ? "I knew it, I knew it all along" !!
How to change careers: so when a closure is announced there are a few things to consider:
Take your time (this may be said to you many times, and the prospect of the wage slip not arriving into your mail box on the last Thursday of every month is a daunting one.) And, how can you possibly say out loud that "I'm not working"? Your friends and family will understand.
It may feel like a sense of control has diminished - I get up at 7, car by 7.30, desk and coffee by 7.45 and so on, and what's more because of my experience I have some sense of professional control. I can almost smell what will happen today in the office or on the factory floor - been there, here's my t-shirt! How does it feel to have a little less control?
You're about to find out if people were friends or colleagues. Does that sense of "each to their own" or one-up-man-ship prevail ?
Recognize that many powerful organizations fall and while we can chose to blame, it may be more beneficial to assess. To discern rather than to judge. And that's not easy to do when you're faced with a big change and you become aware of how your former colleagues are getting on.
This isn't the first time this has happened and it will happen to other companies and brands. There's a whole bunch of emotions and thoughts that go along with that. The point is others have managed this change and there are services available and established.
You may be given support on your career as part of the closure and if that person doesn't establish a rapport with you then you're unlikely to trust, but there is always something to be gained from that time. After a closure it can take a while to re-establish trust again. You can always find the right person, if that's what you want to do.
That feeling of "I spent the last x number of years adjusting to a particular way of working, and now I've to start learning all over again"...have I got the energy.....am I too old???
The next time is a new start so learning to characterise your achievements and how you've developed is quite important. As is recognizing the way you communicate. Can you express yourself your way rather than in a way you may have learned within that culture in order to get through the day? Where's your voice?
Get back in touch with old bosses, colleagues and so on...have a chat, find out what's going on....in your own time. If you got on well with a colleague from work in the past and even if you've gone your separate ways, then it's likely that they will rush to pick up the phone when you ring.
This sounds very familiar. Thank you