Thoughts On Being an Intangible Asset

Chris Brady

My company is moving to a new office building this week, a better location for me, at 15 miles closer to home. My co-workers and I spent the last weeks weeding our offices and cubicles of the non-essential items we have accumulated over the years and packing moving crates with the items that we tell ourselves still matter.

Huge trash bins have been rolling in an out for more than a month taking the paper trash away, and Iron Mountain is making a killing on the paper we are storing until it meets its seven-year expiration.  (Note to self: if Iron Mountain is a public company:  Buy.)

I’ve been fascinated by what has ended up for grabs in the break rooms: an archeological dig of business practice past. It’s clear to me that people in my company have had a hard time giving up on paper as a medium, but this move is nudging them toward the cloud.

Dozens of plastic paper trays are going unclaimed. These used to hold mail or served as a parking lot for folders. Does anybody get mail that matters anymore?  Ninety-five percent of my mail is marketing, and I typically toss it, scanned and barely read in the trash bin in the mail room.  (Sorry marketers, I do the same with e-mail too.)

I saw adding machines with paper and wondered where these had been hiding for the last 50 years since the TI calculator emerged. I stopped myself from claiming an electric typewriter from the pile. It was pure nostalgia, but I knew it would end up in a garage sale at my house, so I just said no. 

Binders in all thicknesses littered the supply rooms, making me believe that these either reproduce when we’re not looking, or that someone had binder salesman for a brother-in-law. When was the last time you thought a binder was a good idea for sharing or retaining information? And do you ever open that binder after you store it on a shelf? I don’t think so. But the romantics packed them into crates to take up shelf space at $x. a square foot in the new site.

As all of this was happening, IT installed Office 365 on my PC. This is Microsoft’s cloud based software, and it means that I won’t need to store stuff on my hard drive; it will be out there in the cloud, accessible from my phone and any computer. I think about the media I have used in my career, from paper, to 5-inch floppy and then 3-inch discs, CD/DVDs, thumb drives, and now the cloud.  What’s next, I wonder, telekinesis? It seems like everything that was once touchable is now just bits of data flying around in a netherworld.

My own work has evolved that way too. As a writer/editor, the brochures, newsletters and advertisements that once were my bread and butter have all become web-based, real-time, with expiration dates. Give me a broadband connection and I can work anywhere. I relate my work to that line on the balance sheet called "intangible assets." But I accept that physical space has value too, for collaboration, for symbolism, and most importantly, for storing binders.

On Monday, I’ll set up my new workspace. I took home ten-year's worth of personal items that had decorated my old office before this move: about a dozen plants and photos, a 10-year collection of tchotchkes and business books. I'm promising myself that I will go low key at this new location: one plant for my health, a few photos of the loves of my life, and my well-thumbed copy of Strunk and White's Elements of Style.  All easily packed when I reach my sell-by date.

What do you like about the present world of work?  What do you miss from days past?

 

Pursuing Other Opportunities: It’s Not Personal...

Chris Brady

We’ve had a lot of lightness of being in the 4 Broads blog lately. Mind if I balance the cheer with a reality rant from the world of work?

A co-worker in my department recently learned that her job was being eliminated in a restructuring. She understands the rationale; she had recommended elements of the new model. However, losing her job was not part of her plan.

It’s the first time in her 20-year career that she is leaving a job involuntarily. She is a competent, experienced, intelligent professional.  She will land a good job somewhere, hopefully better than this one, but it still stings.

Every time this happens, we survivors realize that there is no promise of employment.  All it takes is a bad quarter, a change in strategy, a new leader, or another world economic crisis and more chairs come out of the circle.

In this instance, it’s a new leader -- let’s call him “B” so you can follow the story.  “B” joined our company about three months ago, and he appears to be smart, experienced, and a person of high integrity. He succeeds the former VP -- let’s call her “A”, who resigned after 18 months in her role.  “A” changed the structure 90 days into her term, and her plan resulted in four people losing their jobs because of “fit”. “B’s” new structure is almost identical to the structure “A” replaced.  

For the record, the new structure makes great sense and worked pretty well the last time. I don’t question “B’s” decision. I’ve just noticed that the way you organize things doesn’t really make a difference. All that matters is that you have good (and competent) people and effective management. They will make it work. My friend who is leaving in a month is good people. Her departure will be a loss for us. (Note that she was not escorted out of the building; she has 60 days notice. We’re compassionate in managing professional staff changes to give people a chance to land new employment.)

This scene plays out in business all the time.  Is it any wonder that half of the worldwide workforce admits that they are actively looking for another job? And companies spend time and money on employee engagement surveys to get at the root causes of malaise. (Hello?  We got the memo about loyalty sometime in the 1980s.)

Restructuring, layoffs, salary freezes, financial results, pay for performance: these are the inspirational topics I get to write about half the time in my job. The other half is spent marketing to my co-workers that we have a great company, visionary leaders, good people and our work makes a difference yada, yada, yada.

It’s not the great American novel, but it’s a writing life. Until someone figures out that everything has been written a gazillion times already, and you could have a robot pull up the restructuring memo and change the names, I’m holding on. 

Shoot, I heard recently that newspapers are using robots to write copy now. I can see it now:

We are pleased to welcome C3PO to XCo.  C3, the latest in communications technology, will be publishing employee communications, managing our website, and best of all doesn’t care about wage increases, bonuses, or work-life balance. We regret that Chris Brady has left the company to pursue other opportunities and wish her well.

Help me out here. I’m trying to increase my value proposition for at least another five years. Given the changes in employer/employee commitment, do you read anything in your company’s internal communications that motivates you or strengthens your commitment?

Boomer Dilemma: Knowing When to Quit

Chris Brady

What will I do?  More winter walks on the beach.

I began writing this post on a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Philadelphia at 9:34 pm on a Friday night.  Every time I take one of these trips and find myself waiting hours in an airport I wonder “how much longer will I have to do this?” 

Carol’s post about taking early retirement has me pining for an escape. I don't hate my job. I thrive in it about 80 percent of the time.  But that 20% gap is getting harder to handle, not physically but more in terms of motivation.

Moving to another employer won’t make it better. And I’m not ready to have a complete work stoppage – as much for the social aspects of work as the financial.  The best reason for retiring would be to be with my husband Bernie, who has been retired for more than 20 years now, lucky guy.

My car pool partner is a GenX er who vents about baby boomers and the wreck we have made of the world.  She thinks we should step aside from our big bucks jobs to make way for the next generation.  We have friendly fights about this topic at least once a week. I think everyone has a right to keep working as long as they can perform.  But I agree that some people hang on too long. I hope I know when it’s time to go.

I am planning to live vicariously through Carol for a while. I’ll start taking the steps – figuring out my financial picture, getting a handle on my cost of living, and thinking about what I will do with all that time.  

How about you, dear readers?  If you’re a full time working boomer, are you ready to retire?

Do you feel heat from younger people at work to get out of the way?

If you’re a GenXer or younger, do you feel like boomers are sticking around too long?

Are you looking forward to retirement or dreading it?

Share your wisdom.