I have been missing for a few days, for what are now obvious reasons. It has been one of the more difficult times in my career, and alot has happened.
This post may be a little lengthy, I apologize in advance, read what you want, toss the rest in the garbage.
I have jumped on today, read through all the threads on the Con-way forum, see alot of new faces that just recently joined, and see all the info flying around.
Graveyard has all the accurate numbers on this event on another thread in our forum, so I won't bother with repeating them.
This event has affected a wide variety of folks, from DSRs to VPs and every category in between. For that reason, I don't see this as just a simple reduction in workforce, for if they wanted to accomplish that, they simply would have stuck with eliminating hourly people and that's it...
This reduction had to occur largely due to the current economic conditions all around us. Bad, getting worse, still not at bottom. There are those on this board that will say that I am full of it, that I am towing the company line, blah blah...Quick message to those people: WAKE UP..!!!
I have been watching the key economic indicators for the last few months, and have been telling everyone to be cautious, that bad times are coming. Unemployment filings, consumer spending and price index, retail sales figures...You don't have to be a rocket scientist, and lord knows I'm not, to see what the hell is happening...And now it has caught up to us...
But Con-way chose this time, a very bad time, to realign the company to try to fit the current situation, and constrict some things to make it work and move it forward. This was very strategic..You don't just wake up one day and start wiping out people who have been leaders of entire components because you feel like it...And many will not accept or understand this strategy, they will continue to bash until they get enough folks wallowing with them. But I have been staring at this for some 30 hours, and I have seen the video a few times now with the maps, and the numbers, and I do get it...I may not like it all, but I do get it..
The loss of 2100 people stings, and for me none more so than the people I had to say goodbye to over the past 30 hours..None of them did anything to deserve this, none of them asked for it, none of them earned it, they are just the victims of bad circumstances, plain and simple. I admit to being heartbroken for them and their families, and in many ways I take the blame for what has happened to them.
I have seen many new voices on here since I started reading through all the threads today, new faces, the bashers, the naysayers, the doom and gloom folks, some others from other companies who want to pile on during a tough time, and I was amazed at my lack of surprise by this, as I have come to learn that the boards are a place to do just that very thing.
I have seen the bashing of John L, the calls for him to cut salary, to terminate every RM, and so on and so on...The reason I chose to start this thread is I have decided I have no time for the ignorant hotheads of the world, and I am not going to participate in debates over foolish stuff.
What I am going to do is engage in conversation with the intelligent people I have come to know and respect here these past months and talk about concerns, anxiety, questions, etc...They know who they are, because they are the level-headed, the people that DO want to think things through and try to make sense of it even when that appears to be an impossible task. They know that we may not get all the answers that we are looking for, but they know we will get close, so I will look forward to that.
I will not bother with responses to the bashing, even though I know there are a great many adversely affected directly by this event, and I include myself on that list...
I think my point will be that we are all affected by this event, some of us have just had to say goodbye to good friends, good colleagues, maybe a fishing buddy or a drinking buddy, it matters not..They are all important in our lives for various reasons...
I made a promise to those I was responsible for letting go that I will not rest nor will I be happy until I have done everything in my power to get those people at our place back...I am a realist and I realize that these are tough times, but I also know it can be done, and I would challenge all my Con-way colleagues to the same thing...Quit worrying about being next, make the customer your focus and you won't have any worries...Let's take care of our customers, and the rest will take care of itself...
