I work at PeopleSoft which was just acquired in a hostile takeover by Oracle. I have many emotions about the acquisition and it’s impact on me and many of my good friends. I am going to start blogging publicly about these experiences and this is my first entry. There will be more to follow.
Monday (the day that the acquisitionwas announced) was not September 11th – no one died, there was no videotape of the event, and the nation is not in mourning. But as I watched, with stunned amazement, the events that unfolded, I began to reflect on what is really lost.
There is a similarity between the two events: The shared nature of their impact. It is one thing to lose your job, or for a good friend to lose their job. It is another to have potentially hundreds of friends lose their jobs, or at least lose their company. The difference is not just a matter of magnitude, it is one of substance. Unlike being laid off, or taking a new job, this is a shared experience – one that all of us are experiencing together. Although we each have different reactions to the event, we are sharing the process of change.
This shared experience contains a huge opportunity for each of us. It is an opportunity to reflect upon what we really cherished about the company we called PeopleSoft. PeopleSoft has some great products – I work with them every day and I know the value they bring to customers. PeopleSoft also has some great customers and partners – I spoke to several of them yesterday. And, of course, we have some great people. But, for me, none of those things are what is lost in this acquisition. What we have lost is the sense of community, shared values and shared purpose that we had in PeopleSoft.
So where do we go from here? Of course, the answer is up to each of us individually, but I hope that we each plan to spread the Core Values that this company has espoused for the last 17 years and bring them to wherever we may land. So much is lost, but by knowing what exactly we have lost, we can search for, or create, it elsewhere.
Perhaps now is the time to consider how we each can embody the core values at this moment: People, Customers, Integrity, Quality, Innovation, Fun and Profitability. How can your actions bring each of these of these to light in this very dark time? It has been said that crisis does not build character, it reveals it. What do these difficult times reveal in your character? I believe for many of us this will be a turning point we reflect back on for years to come.
On a practical note, I do want to keep in touch with my many friends at PeopleSoft. I am not leaving the company at this point, but I suspect many of my coworkers are considering your options. There are several ways for to keep in touch with your your coworkers no matter where they land:
- Post your thoughts on “Power to the People” a site developed by a few PeoplePeople for us to talk about our experiences.
- LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a “Social Networking” site for professionals. It is a way for you to keep in touch with your professional network and to find new opportunities. Got to http://www.linkedin.com and sign up – you can search for me and link to me and others.
- The PeopleSoft Alumni Network. This site was started by Steve Tennant (a PeopleSoft Alumni) and it is a gathering place for folks who have worked at PeopleSoft in the past. They only take on people who no longer work at PeopleSoft (so if you end up working for Oracle you are out of luck). You can visit the site at http://www.psftalumni.net/