Being Geek

Chapter 39. The Exodus

It’s a day like any other. The regular flow of morning mails from the highly caffeinated. Two morning meetings with nothing unusual. The usual lunch followed by your staff meeting where...Andy shows up late. Andy is never ever late for anything. Odd...well, whatever.

Staff finishes, still nothing notable, except Andy says nothing the entire time, which is also odd. You’re now officially wondering what is up with Andy, so you grab him and pull him to the closest office.

You: “Dude, what’s up?”

Andy: “I’m leaving.”

In a fraction of an instant, you are able to do all the political and social math regarding Andy’s departure. You can see the complete set of unchangeable reasons he’s leaving, you can predict who is going to follow, and you know that there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.

This is the Moment, and in that moment, you can see how it’s all going to come crumbling down.

This Sucks

At some point of your career, hopefully through no fault of your own, an organization will start collapsing around you. It’s a horrific experience that I hope you can avoid, but one you nonetheless need to understand.

Sorry about the collapse. That sucks. Everything that follows is a dispassionate and judgment-free review of the awful things that are going to occur, but before I start I’d like to point out the singular upside to this collapse: you’re going to learn to see it coming.

Having been through three of these organizational disasters, you’d think I would have learned my ...