3.1 - Creating the Plan

I've been working on a plan to hasten my own demise. While that's not the goal of the plan, that very well may be it's unintended consequence.

I am a victim of an ill-conceived merger in progress.

I work for a large company contracted to a military organization that is merging with another one 1200 miles away. Instead of waiting for guidance from the military, my boss insists that we proactively develop a transition plan to help the merger run smoothly. Since no one wants to move, he is asking us to develop a plan to hire new people, train them to do our jobs, and then get laid off.

No one seems very motivated to work on it.

Many corporate and military leaders are involved at both locations. (The word leaders here is not to be interpreted too literally.) They constantly contradict each other, and come away from every merger-related conversation believing that they are waiting on one of the other leaders to do something before they can act. Even though the expectation is that it should all be done by the end of next summer, at the current level of understanding and cooperation, my job is safe here for several more years.

Anyway, the company started developing this plan. The draft plan was developed by a few folks who conveniently claim that they couldn't get in touch with anyone from our branch. Interestingly, their ill-conceived plan says they move dead last and those who missed the meeting are first to go.

Perhaps in hindsight it seems obvious that any plan developed by a contractor is going to have the same goal: maximizing personal job search time.

With that goal in mind, the best plan is no plan.

Sounds like a plan.