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In this month's Partner Perspective Maggie Bellville explores the impact mergers and acquisitions can have on your career.
Odds are you stand a 50/50 chance of working for a company that is either going to acquire somebody or be the next fish food.
Think about what has happened with AT&T/BellSouth, Time Warner /Comcast/Adelphia, Koch Industries/Georgia-Pacific and Cisco/Scientific-Atlanta—that’s what I’m talking about. And regardless of what side of the fence you end up on, your job is anything but secure.
So what should you do if you find yourself in the middle of a corporate combination? In times of uncertainty—and mergers are certainly that—the most natural reaction is to feel threatened, but the most important attribute one can have during a merger is the confidence to either step up… or step out.
How to Step Up
When I was with Contel Cellular, I had the inauspicious luck of discovering that my company was being acquired by GTE as I was reading the newspaper on vacation. Once I returned, I did my best to avoid rumors swirling around the office, and instead chose to focus on my responsibilities.
Throughout the merger, there was very little communication from upper management, which, in turn, led to even more rumors. Still, I kept my head down, avoiding the chatter and demonstrating my value to the new managers. I wound up being named the head of a new market division.
It’s important to realize that mergers are an opportunity for companies to not only take stock in the business they are acquiring, but also in their staffs. Smart companies realize the need to retain folks on both sides of the fence to keep businesses humming.
How to Step Out
Similarly, mergers are an opportunity for employees to assess their happiness. It’s a good time to ask yourself if you really want to stay for reasons other than inertia. Does someone at the other company have your job? If so, you could be lucky enough to enjoy a generous severance and be on your way to a new career.
Mergers are a great time to consider moving because employees are blameless for leaving. We all know someone who’s been dramatically affected by a merger. They either left to take a new job they are passionate about, stayed and wound up miserable, or in some special cases, they picked up their new flag and continued to wave it proudly.
If you decide to step out, make sure you’re not leaving without a fair severance. Employees in critical-but duplicative roles may also be offered ‘stay’ bonuses to remain until the merger is completed. Compensation packages could also be available should you leave voluntarily. In either case, this compensation may be an opportunity—you could use the money to finance that advanced degree you’ve always wanted, receive specialized career training, or even take a needed vacation.
Whatever you decide, remember a merger is not the end of the world. Keep it in perspective. Our lives and worthwhile contributions will continue, if not in your current environment, then somewhere else.
Whether you step up or step out, you have to keep your antennae up. Watch for signals and signs that indicate it may be time to start looking. Ask the boss about your future. How he or she answers will be critical to your next step. Did you clearly hear him or her ask you to remain with the company? This may be the time to plant a seed about your willingness to leave on positive and congenial terms.
Other signals may include: being left out of meetings or planning sessions that you were previously part of, having your supervisor become increasingly unavailable or hearing your manager say that he or she is fighting to ensure “no matter what” you’ll get a great severance.
To paraphrase Dickens--mergers are the best of times and the worst of times. But by having the confidence and wherewithal to step up or step out, you can ensure that you alone own your future.
Maggie Bellville is a partner in the Atlanta-based executive search firm CarterBaldwin. She can be reached at .
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