Looking
at the example of the 120-page document that was glibly sent by fax and redone
at great expense, I saw many more examples of what I considered wasteful and
non-insightful business moves. Looking into the corporate history of the many
mergers and acquisitions (M&A’s) of one such company (which became the very
publicly bankrupt Lehman Brothers), all I know is what I saw from the ground,
looking up.
When I
first temped for them, the company was called Shearson/American Express (’81 -
’84). Then it became Shearson Lehman/American Express (’84 - ’88). And then,
Shearson Lehman Hutton (’88 - ’90). After that, it was Shearson Lehman Brothers
(’90 - ’93). And then, Smith Barney Shearson.
Lastly,
as a spinoff company, Lehman Brothers enjoyed a lengthy (by these standards)
history, from 1994 to 2008, until it all went south for them.
At any
rate, I worked mainly for the Shearson Lehman/American Express company. They
had offices in the World Financial Center, across the covered pedestrian bridge
over South Street/West Side Highway. They were nice offices, modern, full of
light, not too high up. Their lobbies were gorgeous, especially during holiday
season, in December.
Those
WFC offices all looked and sounded like money. . . hushed, serious,
intermittently jocular (pealing laughter and sounds of camaraderie amidst the
silent gasps of defeat). The sound of money is an oxymoron, as when people can
afford to, they minimize or deaden sound, with thick carpeting and
soundproofing -- anything to keep out the sound of anybody else because that
would introduce somebody else’s reality and money doesn’t have to care about
anybody else because money is special,
you see.
At
least, that’s how it felt in these companies. . .they’d spring for private cars
to take temps home afterhours. That’s because, instead of the bosses spending five
minutes at the start of work and the end of work, monitoring what work had been
accomplished by the temps, they ignored them. Temps would stay as late as they
could, accruing overtime pay, then get a nice free ride (in a limousine
service) home.
I wasn’t
at all surprised when it all went bust in 2008. . . I wondered how Lehman Brothers kept
going that long, really. . .
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