Winds of Change
St. Louis, MO
May 15, 2019
“Is this your bag?”
“Yes”.
“I need to take a look inside.”
Sigh…
“Uh oh. Here it is. You can’t bring a bottle of wine thru security. You can go back and check the bag, or leave the bottle here.”
I completely forgot I had packed the cabernet gift the Ritz Carlton gave me this morning. It was accompanied by a card signed by a dozen or so hotel employees, all thanking me for making their office my home the last several years…and wishing me well as I departed one last time.
“I’ll check it.”
“Are you sure?”, the agent asked acquisitively. “It’s a long way back to the terminal, and you probably don’t want to go thru the line again.”
“That’s OK”, I assured, “I now have plenty of time.”
For the last eight years, for 2-3 weeks each month, St. Louis has been a second home to me and first home of a business I had till a couple years ago been pleased and proud to support…but that yesterday informed me my services would no longer be needed.
Like a man watching his mother-in-law drive off a cliff in his new Mercedes, I am of mixed emotions. For years, this was the best job I have ever had, supporting, working with, and leading the finest group of professionals – and people – I could imagine.
Several of them joined me at the hotel last night, extending their heartfelt appreciation, yet incapable of ever knowing the depth of mine.
For over a year most of us have been biding our time as a new CEO arrived, bringing or fostering cliques and coteries whose appreciation of talent varied inversely as the square of the distance from themselves.
We watched as one after another of our respected leaders and colleagues, by compulsion or conscience, departed.
As reasonable people filed out, inconsistent, contradictory, and vacuous directives poured in…like Vandals into Rome…siphoning the organization like a two pound flea on a one pound dog.
Meanwhile, we waited, calmly…like dead leaves before a hurricane…in the futile hope that the storm would subside, or at least pass us by. Rather than evacuate, we decided to ride it out.
Yesterday, the wind blew, and carried me with it.
Jacques Barzun once observed that to those outside, a revolution is as a rushing flood; to those inside, it is as a whirlpool.
A company in transition is similar, and after two-years struggling not to be sucked under by the swirl, I am happy not to have drowned, and eager for some time away from the deluge.
I recently heard someone describe traveling on United Airlines as being so bad that passengers will soon need to be dragged onto the plane.
I am disappointed that a company that was once such a wonderful place to work has descended to a similar level, but relieved that at those depths it will no longer block the promising prospects that can now come into view.
Louis XIV (of all people) once told his son that we should be humble for ourselves, but proud for the place we hold. For eight years, I enjoyed immense pride in the place I held, and a humble appreciation for those who did so much to sustain me in it.
As I board my final flight from this city, I reflect with nostalgia and gratitude on the people I am leaving, yet anticipate with eagerness and enthusiasm the experiences that await over the near horizon.
And am comforted knowing that in my luggage lies a bottle of wine ready to toast them both.
JD
