THE FINAL CURTAIN

 

 The years floated by and like all things, familiarity bred contempt.  I started to bite the hand that fed me (add you own cliché here).  As my job became repetitive and routine, I started not to believe the slogans that I was promoting – making communications accessible to everyone became grabbing a buck from as many as possible.   Telecommunications was not mired in the old ways as evolved into an “entertainment and online store for the customers.  Many of the old guard were disappearing and the mantra for all of America’s blue-chip companies was “down-sizing.”  I used to quip to my secretary – “If my boss calls get her name!”  Then even those quips ended.  I became a “Self-Sufficient” manager which actually meant many of the support staff was laid off or reassigned.  Along with producing programs  I had to type my own contract letters,  make copies at Office Depot and stop by the post office – we no longer had company mail.  Email had taken it’s place.  As technology was introduced to our systems the company shrunk.

And then one Monday I got the call and I was directed to stop all productions, get rid of the regular freelancers and oversee the outsourcing of my facility.  (To me this was akin to being a captured soldier in WWII being order to dig a grave and then jump in it.)  In a few months the three studios were dark and one of our contracted companies was given a nifty contract to take over our business.  This was a brilliant move by upper management they show diminishing headcount that would mean a better bottom like which ultimately would result in a rise in our stock.  They were patted on the back.  (But in there final report left out that a training tape that cost the company $2500 to produce would now cost $15,000).

            And on a beautiful Spring Day I turned in my ID, left my empty office and reported to the Management Transition Center at our headquarters building where laid-off executive could get a desk, a phone, the use of the copy machine and resume and job seaching support classes – for a month.

            And just like that my TV Journey came to an end.  But in a few day I got a phone call that started me on a totally new journey and to a much different destination.   The call was from a friend that I knew at the Verizon 540 headquarters.  When we worked together he was the same level as me - Staff Manager in the public relations department and he was the editor of one of NJ Bell's management publications.  But now he had been promoted to the Vice President  skipping a few levels and he moved from a cubicle to an office on the 19 floor one floor from the President's massuve suite on the 20th.  Peter V. asked me to come to Newark for a chat.  At the end of that chat he offered me a job as Staff Manager supporting the 15 Community Relations Managers who served one in each county.  No raise in salary but it was a job instead of being out of work - I immediately said yes.  

And my journey took me a new adventure.  But that's another story.