An Open Letter

Dear Friends,

In the two years I have been editing MWM, I've come to meet many people. With Micronetics, the number of people I communicate with using e-mail and the phone is quite large because of the tutorials.

The purpose of this letter is to share with you my experience with mergers and acquisitions. I am by no means an expert in this field, but have lived through two years of the mother company with whom I am employed merging and at the beginning of July (this year) the company with whom I work has officially announced that it will be merging itself.

I feel that those of us employed in the computer industry (taking it in a very wide sense) change jobs at a rate greater than in other fields. An acquisition, comes as a shock because one does not have a say in it; the new owner/baby has been decided without your consent.

Besides the above, there are other issues which are painful in such an event:

• You don't know what's in stock for you. Do you have a job?
• You are angry because you see some of your colleagues being fired, and in the deepest corners of your inner-self you don't know whether next time round the axe will swipe your head.
• The mentality of us and them prevails. It is quite difficult to accept that you are going to have to work with people you might have criticized, or worst still your employers might have publicly criticized the competition they sold their company to.
• The acquired company employees feel that they have been treated like cattle; sold like a piece of furniture.
• You start thinking about all that you put into the company, and start thinking, "for what?".
• The grapevine goes into full force: the "them" employees are morons, snobs, shit bags, boring, etc. And you are going to have to work with them, maybe even eventually share the same office.
• The hierarchy of a company can be another disturbing matters. It might bother some to have to "forcefully" move to a new structure/location.
• Software is very personal, especially if you contributed substantially to a project. The fear that your work might end up in the shredder can be very painful.
• You are angry at all of the crap you've been fed about how well the company is performing and the "long-term" projections of the same.

Another painful thought is the restructuring process. Will I be downgraded? Will I be given a nice title with no weight to it? Will I still retain my current grade but end up in a relativity less important position in the new structure?

Thrust at this point is quite low and any official claims may not be believed. The feeling of having been betrayed is still dominant.

Although what I have described above may seem to apply more to Micronetics staff, some of the points equally apply to the folk at InterSystems. There are good talents and abilities at either end and a company is ultimately out there for the best.

I can't say what will happen at the respective ends, but in my case the following things have taken place:

1. The official information system. This is very important to clarify what is going on and what comes out of it is Bible truth although this does not necessarily mean that everyone will have a smile on his or her face. Its main aim is to kill off the grapevine.
2. Staff assistance. A firm specialized in mergers, acquisitions, etc would help in listening to grievances, and explain what it going on. Such an exercise can have very positive results. One possible reassuring outcome of such activities is that employees on both sides have similar worries and would admire certain qualities of the other side.
3. Getting people to meet. When people from one side come face to face with people on the other side in similar grades and doing similar things, progress would be recorded. By meet, I do not necessarily mean transfer. A cordial, informal meeting, if possible face to face, normally suffices to break the ice. Given geographical problems, it is now possible to conduct such "face-to-face" encounters using, for example, the internet or other types of linkups.

The wound of such an incident does take time to dry up; promising that tomorrow everything will be alright is simply nonsense.

I hope that by sharing my experience, you find this letter helpful and conclude, by wishing you the best of luck.

Sincerely,

Comments on this article

E&OE