Scenario Merger

Selling the Vision

When Serge got his new email address, he assumed that he would have clarity about his role. As soon as the merger became public knowledge, his stress levels had gone through the roof.

He knew he was good at his job, but so were many others. As a senior data analyst, he recognized that he has a valued skill, but after 16 years in one company, his specialty is very much working with the bespoke systems here – if they change after the merger, he may lose his edge.

12 months in, he’s no clearer. Several of his colleagues lost their jobs and he himself is on his fifth line manager and third team.

He hasn’t met his latest line manager before – she’s based in China and he’s in Detroit so even virtual meetings are sporadic at best.

And as for his team – he’s only met them by email, not even video meetings.

The stakeholders he used to work with have vanished – they still work for the company, but they don’t come to him for the same insights he used to give.

And the new stakeholders are extremely impersonal and he’s not entirely clear where they fit into the hierarchy – the emails seem to be more like orders, but the job titles seem to be more suited to junior employees, so he’s finding it hard to prioritize their requests.

One of his previous ‘temporary’ line managers told him that he needed to line up with the new values – but he’s not really clear how they are relevant to him. The corporate handout is full of exciting words and images, but there seems to be little that helps him to do his job.

Serge really doesn’t want to leave his job, so he’s just working aimlessly. He knows he’s stagnating, but he feels the company has forgotten about him.