By Andrew Stoneman of Haskell Collection
Remember when the television had 7 channels (not counting the fuzzy, temperamental ones -28 and 56) and Saturday morning was all about cartoons? People, really old ones it seemed at the time, would go to work Monday through Friday while we kids would grapple with homework and school projects. It was the weekends that became fun. The formula for existence was really easy and the pace was both predictable and manageable.
How is it then, that when I reflect back a mere 25-30 years to that time, the reality of that life model may as well be science fiction? That neatly organized 5-day workweek has been blown up too. Immediate availability via cell phones and tablets, 24 hour information streaming, and a fast is better approach to business have made those 5 days into an omnipresent specter of responsibility – like 24/7 homework with revolving due dates. Add to that the global nature of markets and our professional lives become even more complex.
Now with all the complexities, toss in the economic downturn(s) of ’06 / ’07. I’m betting that for most the world radically changed in those years. Being involved in the architectural / engineering, construction, development arena, like yours truly, meant that cell phones stopped ringing, customers stopped ordering, counterparts stopped building, and co-workers started disappearing. Oversea clients became frozen semblances of their former selves because of US economic (mis)fortunes. Domestic customers started to vanish as well and the great recession began looking more like a depression.
Wasn’t “layoff” something you told your bullying older brother to do when holding you in a headlock? Unfortunately it was an all too often experienced piece of HR paperwork people found on their desks. Where’s the reserved parking spot, Christmas bonus check and vacation accrual matrix? Where’s the 35-40 year work commitment and retirement plan? Where’s the farewell party, cake, and employee signed putter? Just like that, it all kind of went * poof *! The notion that you could find your parents’ career path in America, stay with a company for a few decades were gone forever.
When the dust settled there were more casualties than just that dated idea of a life. The cumulative results are, at the least, disruptive to some while absolutely devastating to others.
I’ve fallen somewhere in between, and been incredibly fortunate to have saved well, married a hard working (and still employed) saint of a woman, and have a family support network second to none. I was afforded the time to digest the upheaval of the past few years without having to live in a cardboard box under an overpass. So much of what I had been working towards was dependent upon factors out of my control. Design clients and builds in domestic markets funded by overseas capital partners. Foreign construction projects fueled by borrowed money from speculative investment revenue destined to go south. It all seemed ridiculous to me how complicated things had become and how I was at the mercy of so much of it.
I decided to commit to myself, and those around me, to start a new path down a road much closer to home. I’d draw on my experience from three hard hit arenas (the engineering / steel industries, the construction materials world, and the interior / landscape design markets) to begin an upstart enterprise based solely on US built products. The result has made me feel richer and more fulfilled than any previous endeavors combined. The materials, designs, and products come from home and help to support our immediate domestic systems of sustenance. Our moneys spent and earned stay local and our focus remains on growing via vendors and customers in our immediate region. Real people who are just as concerned about returning to locally based enterprise and keeping it healthy. Operational scales have shrunk and target market regions are with two or three time zones- though that’s not to say we aren’t aiming big- we’re just keeping the home fires burning without having to be dependent upon support from abroad- and it feels good. Making it work, and it is thus far, proves that one does not have to look across borders for anything. Resourcefulness, craftsmanship, ingenuity, and quality reside right under our feet here in the US- right where it’s always been- and in fact it’s better than ever.
>>About the author; Andrew Stoneman along with his wife, Laura Haskell, own Haskell Collection, a line of eco-friendly outdoor modern furnishings made in the USA. Haskell Collection has been featured in The LA Times, Design Milk as well as MoBlog.
The post Layoffs, Luck, and the New Normal appeared first on MoBlog.
