by Dewy Morris

Created on: October 07, 2008

On December the 8th 2006 my life changed forever. I got up that morning as usual as I have in the past 9 years and got ready for work. I've never led a very exciting life so why should this day be any different from the rest? Life was ok I was making it; I thought, at least it seemed that way anyway. The company that I worked for was a privately held truck dealership just north of Atlanta, GA. I worked in the shipping and receiving department and oversaw the logistics of the company. The company was sold out to a publicly traded company in New Braunfels, TX. The new owners took control of operations on November the 13th. I made it through the transfer from the old to the new company with no problems. I thought I had it made with new hopes of aspirations of climbing for the first time in my life Corporate America's ladder. Wow! I now worked for a multi-billion dollar company traded on the stock market! Imagine that!

The IT department for Corp. Headquarters came in and began to connect our dealership to all of the others across the US to the network. All of the computer equipment had to be changed out. There was something like 20 dealerships that had to be tied into Corp. Headquarters. There were various people from all of the stores that were sent to help get our dealership up and running. After working with some of those people for several weeks they kept telling us that it was a lot different to work for a publicly traded company with all of the rules and regulations imposed by the government than it was with the old company. I learned from inside sources that the new rule was that our customer(s) was the stock holders. It was no longer the customer (the consumer) is always right, number one in customer satisfaction mentality that dominated the business world for centuries. In essence we were told to disregard them. The new customers where the stock holders in the company they could care less about customer care. The stock holders are more concerned about the performance of their shares rather than the consumer's satisfaction and confidence in the company's products and services. If the stock is down they get a little bent out of shape and god forbid if the stock takes a nose dive then panic begins and starts the ripple effect across the board. The idea that the customer (consumer) is number one took a back seat!

At a quarter to four late that Friday afternoon I was downsized, reduction in work force as they put it. That's corporate lingo for a nice way of saying

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