The Spring Org Chart

The huge open space office was silent and felt oppressive with the low lighting and the fake ceilings. People with oversized earphones sat in front of dark background screens tapping silent keyboards. Strangely, although the space was surrounded by a wall of windows made of thick, secure glass, very little light seemed to make it through to the desks beautifully aligned in rows.

The unease of the atmosphere was given by the fact that no two people were interacting with each other, they were all there, but it seemed like something inside was preventing them from reaching out and being together.

It had not always been like this. They had had sunnier days, with no headphones, but with chat around the coffee maker in the kitchenette hidden in a far corner. Slowly though, as good bye emails started to pop in their inbox, they started to wonder. Why were so many people leaving?

The emails were positive and grateful, full of good energy and upbeat. The undertone though, made the ones reading them wonder what it was all about.

With every email received, the group seemed to lose energy distancing themselves one from the other, wondering who will be the one sending such an email next? They looked at each other with blood shot eyes, trying to hide their concern and working hard to pretend upbeat and carefree.

‘The old people’, as they were called behind their back by the young overachievers, were the ones that looked the most worried and seemed to almost hunch physically under their fear. In their forties and fifties, they were the ones that were less employable if they lost this job. They had families and mortgages, losing their job would mean really difficult times ahead.

They reacted in different ways, some got so distracted that they could barely function anymore, others, wanting to prove their usefulness to the company, were making a lot of noise working hard to make themselves noticed and to make it out that their work was invaluable and so were they. It did not matter this meant their colleagues were put under a lot of strain, when push comes to shove, what really matters is saving your own skin.

An email whitened all their screens and fast eyes scanned the content.

Town hall … in thirty minutes … all must attend in person or over Zoom …

The open space buzzed, thirty minutes, that for sure in itself spoke a thousand words. Some ran quickly to the toilet, some took some headache pills, others went to get a quick coffee from the machine. No matter the choice, thirty minutes later they were all present in the meeting hall or with their eyes glued to their screen.

‘Thank you all for coming!’

Like we had a choice!

‘Your work is invaluable to the company …’

Buuuttttt?

‘But as we start this new chapter, we as a company, need to be nimble and focused!’

Here it comes!

‘Hyper-growth means agility and fast action. We aim to differentiate ourselves from the bureaucratic corporations of old where ten people need to approve one action.’

Ay, ay, ay!

‘For this purpose we will align shortly to our Spring Organizational Chart. You will receive it promptly in your email. Those that do not see your name there, HR will be sending a follow up email right after.’

Mind blown! Whaaaa …?!

‘Thank you all for your time and do not hesitate to reach out to your manager or HR representative for any additional questions.’

WTF?!

Spring Organizational Chart???!!!

The speaker quickly disappeared behind a glass door, the Zoom stopped leaving them all shocked in place for a brief time until the emails started coming in.

Org Chart- HR; Org Chart- HR; Org Chart- Thank God!; Org Chart- HR

‘The Old People’ were highly impacted, their section of the office felt sad and broken, some were literally crying. Their managers watched them powerless not even mustering the energy to say some encouraging lies.

As the emails came in so the people disappeared. In the next few hours the space became almost empty. The ones that had not made it on the Spring Org Chart had left and the ones left behind were governed by a confusing feeling of elation and panic.

They were the chosen ones, they had to prove their worth, they now had to take on all the work that was left owner less.

Close to the end of day a new email came.

‘You can do this! The company needs you! You are our best and brightest! You are invaluable and irreplaceable! Together we will conquer the world!’

Laptops got closed, headphones shut off, and while making their way to the bus, bike or wherever, the chosen ones were working hard to rejoice having been chosen to be part of the Spring Org Chart.