Corporate Warfare

When soldiers live life in the trenches, it means they don’t know when their time is up. They could be here now and gone tomorrow with one bullet, one mortar or one military accident. The month of January and the first two to three weeks of February at agencies and companies alike tend to be one of the worst times to be at in a company. Although your company may finish its fiscal year in another month, hirings and firings often occur during this month as if shedding the winter weight of what execs may possibly refer to as excess baggage, collateral or just fat on the meat.

In an era of doing more with less that means that like it or not, 1 out of 10 people you know may get or have gotten the axe during this time. I’m seeing a lot of new faces and I’ve stopped seeing a couple of old faces… it’s the nature of the corporate beast, it often stinks and to oversimplify things, sometimes shit happens.

But if you’ve gotten the axe or know someone who didn’t make it, be consoled in the fact that this is a new beginning for you. Way often, people lull themselves into a false sense of security. They learn the drill, they execute and they live life in sleep mode or on auto-pilot. Sometimes we need something traumatic to shake us awake to life and for a couple of people I know, it was getting fired. These are good people who got the axe because of budget cuts imposed to streamline operations. Out of the ones I know, some are still within their shock, asking what they did wrong and shivering at the prospect of switching jobs or maybe even learning a new trade. However there are others who’ve gotten canned and are operating with a renewed zest. They’ve done much more than just turn a frown upside down. They’ve taken adversity and translated it into opportunity.

To these people, getting fired is one of the best things that has happened in their lives and even in a couple of weeks’ time I’ve seen some people sprout wings. Some of them are spurred by the will to prove people wrong. Others are spurred by the opportunity to do what they’ve wanted to do for years but hadn’t because they were settling.

In all honesty, perception is reality, and if getting fired is a tragedy, that’s what you’ll live. If however, you see this as a good thing, as a milestone, a crossroads, a turning point or a rebirth, then the sky is the limit.

Cheers my friends,