A Second Look at Compassion

And then there’s the polar opposite of people who don’t deserve compassion.

Back in October, approximately 300 workers in Ashland, Ohio lost their jobs when the Archway cookie factory closed their doors. No jobs. No insurance. Boom.

The point could be made that Archway had no choice. They were toast and they knew it and they couldn’t afford to continue to pay these people. Actually, it wasn’t “Archway” so much as Catterton partners, the private-equity firm that bought Archway in 2005. According to Catterton Partners’ own web site:

With the closing of Catterton Partners’ sixth fund, we have over $2.0 billion of equity capital under active management, making Catterton one of the largest private equity firms in the United States focused on the consumer industry.

Gives you that big, warm, It’s A Wonderful Life kind of feeling, doesn’t it?

Anyway, Catterton put Archway up on the auction block where it was purchased by Lance Inc. a North Carolina company that manufactures and markets snack foods. Lance Inc. not only re-opened the plant and gave all the workers their jobs back but gave each employee a $1,500 prepaid debit card. This simple act provided the employees with not just a job and some security but some hope not only for the holiday season, but, potentially, for the kindness of others.

The CEO of Lance Inc., David Singer, has been quoted as saying that the gift cards were their way of showing that they were different than Catterton. From CNN’s coverage of this story:

“We wouldn’t do it willy-nilly,” Singer says. “We do want to make money. But this is the pool of folks that we intend to hire. We just wanted to let them know who we were.”

Lance Inc. intends to have the plant rolling out five separate lines of cookies by the end of the year and is hoping to be able to add jobs over the next year.

People toss the idea of boycotts around all the time. Firm X’s CXO makes a disparaging remark about group Y and boycotts are called for. You rarely hear of anybody asking people to specifically patronize a particular business because they did something good. But shouldn’t Lance Inc. be lauded for this simple act? Reopening the plant and returning these people to work would have been enough. The debit cards? This is the kind of thing that goes beyond what should be done and steps into true kindness and compassion.

I’d like to suggest that everyone patronize Lance inc. whenever possible. Lance Inc. sells to Target and Wal-Mart. You can also purchase items directly from their web site.

I’ve always felt that using old, foreign expressions to make a simple statement is pretentious at best. This time, though, if you know the expression and what it means, it fits.

Namaste, Lance Inc.

And maybe, in this bleakest of holiday seasons, it goes for everyone. Even those that don’t deserve compassion.

Namaste.

Hark! Hear The Death Knell!

Something I discovered a number of years ago: when your employer starts hiring consultants to give its employees lessons on things like “effective customer service” and “team building”, it’s time to start looking for another job.

I’ve worked for three separate companies that did this. The first time, the “old timers” immediately started predicting doom. I couldn’t understand why. I thought, “no big deal. It’s a seminar. We learn something that helps us do our jobs more efficiently.” I stuck it out for another year but ended up having to take a job I didn’t want for less money before I ended up on the street because the company I worked for couldn’t afford to keep people. Within five years, my previous employer was bought by a larger company and dissolved.

When it happened the second time, my hackles were raised but I stuck it out anyway, hoping that the first time was an aberration. It wasn’t. Fortunately I didn’t stick around as long that time. Within a few weeks, the signs were everywhere. I, along with the rest of the management team was gone within six months of each other – all on our own terms. That company still exists but, from what I understand, it’s a financial drain on the owner.

The third time it happened, I hooked up with a couple of headhunters the day the announcement was made. Within three months, I had a new job. That company was bought by a “Consulting Services” group and was turned into a company that handled a completely different business. Most of the employees were let go. Of the few that remain, one is in upper management and doing extremely well. The rest are easily some of the most miserable people I know.

Flash forward to today. In my inbox was an announcement that we the minions of my current employer, are to attend a seminar being presented by a consulting firm. The announcement makes no mention of the nature of this seminar – just be there – but looking up the firm online led me to a description of a company that specializes in developing strategic marketing and sales programs for our industry.

This time it’s different, though. In the previous instances I was 1) living in major metropolitan areas and 2) considerably younger. I’m now hitting my mid-40s and living in an area where people are excited to get a job that pays $11 an hour because opportunities like that are few and far between.

Now, I should be able to deal with this. I mean, as I said before, I’m hitting my mid-40s. This shouldn’t be the kind of thing that bothers me but along with the maturity of middle age comes the responsibilities of middle age. I have a family to support. And besides having the income stream continue to flow, I’m pretty sure they’d prefer it if, when I came home I wasn’t pissed off all the time.

Then there’s Buddhism. If I really believe the things I say I believe, this should just roll right off my back. I should be focused on the truly important things (we’ll forget for the moment that paying bills is actually important and focus on things like the four noble truths and the eightfold path).

So it’s time to suck it up and play the hand that life deals to me. Right?

Um, yes. Apparently so.

So I sit tight, be a good little employee…and wait.

 

 

Are we there yet?

 

 

What about now?