Customer service executive Fred Tritschler, on the other hand, took a different approach. After deciding to take IBM's Individual Retirement Option, Tritschler was leaving his office one afternoon at 3 P.M. when his boss passed him in the hallway and asked, "Where are you going?" Fred replied, "I'm breaking the habit."
Working within a large organization for most of one's career results in a host of habits. The hours an executive works are fixed by the organization, one's dress is dictated by an unwritten code, and often one's office size is determined by his or her status within the company. Executives also become accustomed to what they can or cannot say in meetings, and in their correspondence and access to information necessary to perform their jobs is limited by a hierarchical information distribution system. Many executives view their organization's policies, rules, and regulations as an intricate part of their support and security system. Faced with the sudden shock of being no-fault-terminated, it's hardly surprising that large numbers of them, like John's friend in public accounting, initially continue those same habits as they begin searching for new career opportunities. But if executives are going to change both their view and their way of working, they must learn that these "old world" habits need to be put aside to become successfully self-directed.
Though breaking these habits may be painful, confusing, and often disorienting, all executives, employed or unemployed, must make this adjustment, because while these habits defined security as it was provided by an organization, they no longer have value today as part of one's external support and security system. Separating oneself from the habits of a lifetime, however, is no easy task. It's hard enough for most people to adapt when they take retirement at a normal age. But when an executive is forced to take early retirement or is no-fault-terminated, often it happens without warning. In an article entitled "Survivor," Judi Dash, a onetime newspaper editor, described just how quickly she was downsized:
There was something wrong with my office computer.... When I typed in my secret password, neon-green letters blinked: "No such device."... Suddenly, it hit me: I was one of them.
For many no-fault-terminated executives, it is usually the way in which the termination is handled that upsets them the most. When Joe Cullen chose to leave the Burndy Corporation, the human resources representative he spoke with asked, "What are you going to do when you grow up?" Joe describes how this made him feel:
The statement jolted me. I felt he was saying I wasn't mature. I was nervous about leaving, but I wanted to be relieved of my contract. When I asked whether I could be relieved of it, he said, "Certainly," because where was a person with twenty-nine years' experience at the same company going to find a job in this environment? I was angry.
Even when an executive does plan his own exit, as engineering manager Stu Litt did when he decided to leave Hazeltine after twenty-four years, the initial process of separating from the organization can be extremely traumatic:
I was an emotional wreck. I gave notice and was beside myself for a number of weeks afterward. It was like get-ting divorced.
Even those who have a position waiting for them cannot escape the trauma of being downsized. In the words of Union Carbide executive Frank Purcell:
When they told me they'd give me a year and a half to get out, it was music to my ears. But when the moment came, there was a jolt. I don't know what divorce is like, but after thirty-two years of working at the same place, there is an umbilicus to the company and you really feel it when it's cut. You're leaving a womb of sorts-a good, secure place. And all your closest friends are there. It's a very heart-wrenching experience.
How, then, does an executive break the organizational habits in the sudden absence of a clearly defined role and the measures of achievement that attend accomplishment within an organization?
Many of the executives we talked to had come to take for granted certain elements of life within large organizations: long-term job security, the ability to raise their families, pay their mortgages, and enjoy a certain social status. Therefore, most found themselves inadequately prepared to come to terms with being more self-directed, and, as their stories show, each of their transitions is characterized by individual and distinct circumstances.
