Friday was my last day at the Floundering Yo-Yo Publisher as it will be known from now on — 3 positions (officially), 4 reorganizations, 6 bosses — after 4 years, 1 month and 8 days of working there, and as much as I’ll miss some of the people, the place itself can’t disappear in my rearview mirror fast enough!
Seriously; what a clusterfuck!
My exit interview was interesting in that much of what I had to say wasn’t really news to the HR person, despite the fact that she’s only been there since January. There’s routine turnover, and then there’s “Abandon Ship!” frenzy, and the Floundering Yo-Yo Publisher has seemingly been in the latter mode for close to a year now, especially in the marketing department, from which I escaped back in September but was still the focus of many of my “Why I’m Leaving…” answers.
Friday was also the last day for DG (pictured, at our shared “farewell” party Friday night), making her the ninth marketing person to quit since the beginning of 2006, not counting another who was fired and a temp who was dismissed. There’s one more who is giving notice on Monday, and at least one more with one foot out the door. This from a department that, fully staffed, is roughly only 10-12 people strong.
“Iceberg!” anyone?
The worst part is a lot of the blame is falling on the shoulders of the Director of Marketing — the sole Director of Marketing for a company that had five when I first started, and has more, not less publications now, not to mention a more mature, if ill-conceived, electronic platform — who, despite some legitimate shortcomings, can now officially be called “Scapegoat” as no one wants to point the finger where it belongs, at upper management and Finance for aggressively slashing marketing budgets over the past few years, offering non-competitive salaries and raises, not replacing exiting employees 1:1, and having a typically muddle-headed corporate structure that mimics the US military’s approach to Iraq.
Meh.
Whatever.
On the positive side, I did make some good friends I intend to stay in touch with for a change. Other than that, though, I’m moving on, very excited about my next step, starting in a brand new environment with some connections to personal interests and a past job or two, and a much better commute.
