Monday April 27, 2009 
Monday April 27, 2009 A couple of weeks ago, I joined some friends to attend the preview party for what was to be the famous Michael Jackson auction. I usually don’t hang out with the rich and famous, so I was eagerly anticipating the evening. Plus, come on… aren’t you just a little curious about what stuff Michael Jackson blew his entire fortune on (lawyer fees and payoffs to children aside, of course)?
Well. It was eye-opening, to say the least. The auction showing was held in a now defunct department store in Beverly Hills – the perfect setting. Walking up from the parking lot, you passed through the old gates from his Neverland estate (estimated price of “you-don’t-want-to-know”). After picking up our VIP passes, beautifully embossed with a four-color rendition of the King of Pop, we got some Jesus Juice (what you and I think of as “wine”) and started to wander around the exhibit.
First, the sheer volume of stuff was overwhelming. This is a man who never saw a trinket he didn’t need to have. If it was Baroque and covered with gold scrolls, he had to have it. Endless sets of china, glassware, silver. Hideous table decorations. Room after room filled with…stuff.
About one-third of the exhibit was devoted to his collection of toys. An almost life-sized robotic case with puppets of Pinocchio and his fairy godmother played the transformation from puppet to child at the touch of a button. Castles, tricycles, more Disney toys, hundreds of life-sized dolls, including Shirley Temple in ringlets and a starched crinoline skirt, curtseying. A huge castle.
And then there were the life-sized mannequins, so realistic that when I bumped into one, I turned to say, “Excuse me.” The mannequins were in a variety of poses, from playing the piano to doing paperwork at a desk. I asked someone what the heck was with the pretend people, and he told me that Michael got so lonesome at Neverland that he had these mannequins placed throughout his mansion so he wouldn’t be there all by himself.
Instead of being funny and a kick in the pants, the exhibit made us profoundly sad. Think of the good that money could do in this world. Think of how Bill and Melissa Gates use their vast fortune. Think of how Bono works to better mankind’s lot in life. And then see how Michael Jackson plundered his own fortune on piles of crap that are just plain creepy.
Money can buy you stuff. Money can allow you to surround yourself with huge portraits of yourself depicted as a king, magician or knight. Money can buy you a big estate filled with toys. Money can buy you companionship. But it can’t buy you love. Or friendship. Or meaning in life.
Go home and hug those you love. And be grateful that you have a life of friendship, love and meaning instead of a castle filled with emptiness and lost opportunity.
Posted by terrymckenzie ( Apr 27 2009, 08:00:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [5]
Thursday April 23, 2009 There's Gotta be a Pony in There Somewhere
I've sat down to write this post a number of times, just to find myself staring at the screen with nothing to say. While out walking my lovely dog today, however, I finally figured out how I was feeling.
Some years back, I did some volunteer work with the Guide Dogs for the Blind organization. As I'm sure you know, the organization looks for good families to foster their puppies for the first two years of the dogs' lives, during which time the dog is trained and tested and trained some more. For those pups who have passed all their tests, there comes a time to meet their adoptive parents, blind people who are eagerly anticipating working with and getting to know their new guide dogs. The annual graduation day celebration is bittersweet. There's joy on the faces of the recipients, and both tears and pride on the faces of the foster parents who must say goodbye.
So what on earth does this have to do with the Oracle announcement this week?
That change is hard. That some of us are changing surroundings, colleagues, homes. That skills and knowledge learned in one environment will now be tested in another. That new opportunities await all of us, whether we are going to be part of the new organization, or if like me and many of my colleagues, we likely shall not. That saying goodbye to something that is so dear to you is very, very painful, but that life moves.
I've used this quote here before, and I'm going to use it again. In a famous Pogo cartoon, the great philosopher possum said,
“The misery of uncertainty is far worse than certainty of misery.” (Walt Kelly)
What we have been through as a company over the past month has been just plain dreadful. Rumors, innuendos, nastiness that has been devastating to our employee morale. Well, we're just about at graduation day, and at least we know where we're going and why. That's so much better than where we were just a week ago. When I talk to friends and colleagues, there's huge relief in their voices – although a job search may await in a tough market, as least the guessing games are over.
Posted by terrymckenzie ( Apr 23 2009, 08:00:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
Thursday April 16, 2009 Admittedly, I've come a long way in the past year. Since my second cataract surgery, I have not fallen down once. Given that the year before my surgery, I took two serious tumbles – one that resulted in several cracked ribs, a cracked clavicle and a blown-out knee, and the other that left me with a broken arm and dislocated elbow (want to feel the plate in my arm??).
I had come to the conclusion that I have the grace of an ox on a tightrope.
But now that I can see, it's amazing! I'm not falling, tripping, stumbling – well, at least nowhere near as much as I did in the past. So when I saw this fabulous shoe from Cole Hahn, I had dreams of wearing it and, well, looking fabulous.
And then I had a moment of sad reality – this shoe was designed for twisted ankles and lurching falls into thin air, at least as worn by me. The mental picture I had of myself dressed to kill was accurate – except that the person I would be killing would be ... me!
So go ahead, all you graceful gazelles out there who can trip the light fantastic, not the body clumsy - indulge yourselves. You won't mind if I stare at your feet, will you? Be assured that it's just jealousy, not a foot fetish. I swear.
Posted by terrymckenzie ( Apr 16 2009, 01:12:51 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Wednesday April 08, 2009 I've heard from a number of you about who actually had the big mouth – was it a Sunnie or an IBM'er? The consensus seems to be that the leaks did not come from us.
In the end, what difference does it make? Whoever talked – whoever had the big mouth – hurt us. Distracted us, damaged our morale. Made a hard job harder. I hope like hell it wasn't someone from IBM, a company for whom I've always had the highest respect. And I hope like hell it wasn't someone from Sun, because this company represents so much that is goodness to me. It's not you, it's not me, it must be the man behind the tree...
A secret, the saying goes, can be kept by three men, but only if two of them are dead. And when jobs and careers are on the line, what a shame that someone spread rumors – be it cynically to manipulate the situation, selfishly for personal gain and glory, or naively, not calculating the harm that could done. A lesson to all of us, then, on the consequences of breaking trust.
And for those who wonder why companies don't comment on rumors, consider this your case study in why saying nothing can be in the best interest of all.
Posted by terrymckenzie ( Apr 08 2009, 08:00:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
Tuesday April 07, 2009 And this time, it wasn't Ralph Kramden. The person with the big mouth and total lack of integrity is he or she who felt compelled to leak the IBM story to the press. And I'd like to say to that person, “Why don't you go work somewhere else? Like for the competition?”
Consider the grief we've had since the story hit the Wall Street Journal. Employees have been distracted. Angst has soared. Productivity has taken a hit. As if we didn't have enough to deal with, laying off 1,500 employees last week. And for what? Nothing. The talks have ended, if you believe the papers (although that doesn't necessarily mean anything). So we're back to where we were before, but ... different. There's an uneasiness in the air that wasn't present before. We've had dirty laundry aired in public, and we've had to come to terms with our attachment to Sun, should we actually be acquired by another firm.
Employee communication 101 teaches us that to help employees through a transition of this size, you need to answer two basic questions:
Why is there better than here?
What will happen to me?
Neither question is possible to answer when you're in a state of limbo. Which puts managers in an impossible situation – not knowing anymore than the employees do, completely unable to answer questions and not able to paint a picture of the future. So the faster a company can move to a decision point, the healthier it is for employees.
But we had the worst of all worlds – unsubstantiated rumors everywhere we turned. Respectable journalists reporting the story. And enough details to the rumor to make it hard to believe someone wasn't just making this stuff up.
Which brings me back to our own Ralph Kramden with the BIG mouth. You're not the greatest, pal. And you're no friend of Sun's. “To the moon,” buddy, to the moon...
Posted by terrymckenzie ( Apr 07 2009, 08:34:24 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [15]
