Catching the Bullet

There are innumerable reasons why the Roman Empire grew and just as many for why it collapsed. It is very difficult to back up simple reasons for the things that happened. For example the birth of empire came from the young Republic’s interest in securing peace on its boundaries. That is one argument. I could expound or counter argue that if this were a thesis of some kind instead of a blog post, but that is what it is and I will continue. Indisputably the Romans over-extended their reach and had to rely on conquest for the plunder to support a failing system and an army made up more and more by mercenary tribesman who were more loyal to their own than to any ideology of Rome. Some immigration issues never change.

For administrative reasons the Empire was given two administrative centers, Rome and Constantinople, with the latter taking precedence after Constantinople renamed the city-fortress of Byzantium for himself and set up shop there around 330AD. The Western Roman Empire fell to Germanic invaders while the Eastern Roman Empire waged a thousand-year two-front war. A losing war.

The tide ebbed and flowed, but the trend inexorably led to shrinkage of the Empire, whose people considered themselves Romans until the very end even though the young nations that grew from the corpse of the west considered them Greeks. By the time the end came in 1453, the Byzantine Empire resided completely within the walls of Constantinople, besieged by the Ottoman Turks to whom they had been losing their lands for two-hundred years.

How did it happen? Almost two-thousand years of culture and strife and in the end it came down to a handful of people manning the walls. Was it overextension? Did the leaders fail to look ahead? Did the people place their momentary success and comfort over supporting policies of long-term viability? Was it six-hundred years ago so who gives a damn?

I have complained about the super-corporation that I work for many times here. I even have a label for Corporate Life. A misspelled link that I will correct if I ever figure out how. In the seven years I have worked for this company I have somehow survived three location closures and a dozen layoffs as they have “managed our footprint.” Almost all of those were close calls. Elyena and I started to feel like we were playing Russian roulette. We finally got the loaded chamber. Recently my employer closed almost a hundred operations eliminating three thousand jobs. 3000. 3K. My department, purchasing, has been on eggshells waiting for to see how that would affect us . . . how many of us would be reduced. Yesterday morning my supervisor called a meeting and announced that our entire office is being eliminated with no hope of relocation.

It has been an interesting seven years. In my working lifetime, starting at the age of fourteen, this was the first big corporation that I worked for, and I owe a lot of my education and understanding of the way the world works to it. My previous employers were all family businesses. They left a lot to be desired. One shaved a little off of my time cards like I was too blind to see the eraser marks or too ignorant to know that taking a little off of everyone’s time week after week resulted in saving thousands of dollars a year. Quite respectable for a family business. And there was the one that almost got me killed by taking penny-pinching shortcuts like disconnecting the safety sensor in the seat of an industrial trencher, the end result being that even after I was ran over and had to have knee surgery that I sat in my leg brace and watched while they sent the same machine in the same condition back out on the job.

Through all of this I maintained that it was the family businesses that were so flawed. It is in large part thanks to my expiring employer that instead of the big business loving Republican that I grew up as I am the unrepresented fighter of the invisible aristocracy of America. I used to have the idea that Human Resources are there to look after the employee. The years have helped me to recognize that resources are there to be exploited by the company, human or otherwise, and HR is the vehicle propaganda. I sat in an HR meeting where our rep announced some heinous change the company was making “for our stockholders,” whatever the hell that means.* “The company is not out to screw you,” she said. No it isn’t. It’s not vindictive. It’s just completely apathetic. It’s just business.

Our industry is cyclical and instead of getting ready for the downswing my employers kept gobbling up smaller companies in order to look good to “the stockholders.” It was corporate imperialism at its worst and it left us wide open to the massive collapse of our empire. Their empire. Their influence has helped me become a closet commie. That’s beside the point, though. They were too busy posturing to be ready for the economic situation we are facing. And their employees are paying for it.

It may sound like I am going postal, but I am not. As long time readers know, as well as friends and family, I have long considered my relationship with this company as much a liability as an asset. As of December 5th I will be a free agent. I will find a new job and will have no long-term employment ties to keep me from going to graduate school. So here’s to change: may mine be the only company that tanks in the economy to come, and I promise not to turn this blog into a whining forum. Unless I have another dang clever historical analogy to go with it. Only time will tell.

R.

*I don’t believe in stock holders. I think it is a myth used by boards of directors to do whatever they like. The stockholders are millions of Americans who are dumping money into their 401K plans. So when a company says they are doing something for their stockholders they are at best blowing sunshine but more likely taking advantage of the ignorance of their employees.