Late last year we experienced a layoff as a company that shook many employees and projects to it's core. Employees who had been here for decades, possessed knowledge worth more than the salaries they were paid; tossed away. Sure, they were paid severance. Sure, they cost money. But when does the quality offered to our internal and external customer become less valuable? That quality is dashed when we decide to cut corners, react too late, buy Band-Aids rather perform surgery. What we are left with, is a demoralized workforce missing that knowledge. What we are left with is a set of leaders who can no longer rely on those key players to share their lifeblood to pump oxygen through the heart.
Someone smarter than I said, "Well son, you need to pick a company that isn't afraid to go with a plan B. Someone that can pay it's shareholders. And Halliburton is that company."
The old man didn't know this was coming, and perhaps the layoff that occurred before Christmas last year was a kindness to those employees.
But my question still remains, who do we work for?
Do we work for the same values preached every day during the centennial year? A hundred more years of glory and quality delivery? We are now an execution company are we not? The message is consistent and the message adds up, but the data does not support the results.
Do we work for a company that values, celebrates and embraces the execution made daily that generates revenue? That is hard to believe when we look at manufacturing centers being threatened by furloughs that do and will hinder tactical and strategic delivery. That is hard to believe when operations are the first to take a slash, and support functions stay in tact while folks celebrate how lean we are.
It is my sole belief that we do not work for the company we claim to represent, and it is not our fault. At the end of the day when the pumps shut down, the shop doors close, the computers power off, and the doors close behind us.
Who we really work for is who we take with us. Our well being, our families, our families continuance.
We are not team Halliburton, we are individual contributors to our own success which can not be defined by a severance check, a furlough, a promotion, an opportunity.
Who we work for is ourselves. So at the end of the day we do not deserve the cancer shared by a body who's lifeblood no longer carries oxygen.
We deserve our worth, so if this scares you, I encourage you to develop and build your worth.
Burn the cancer, your life is worth more.