I found out the second company I worked after I graduated at San Jose State University moved. I refer to the second company in the commercial real estate industry as "CPI." CPI moved closer to Downtown San Jose. Their new location is inside a high-rise office building occupying an entire floor. Their previous location was a two-story freestanding building. My guess is the move happened in 2018 according to my research. I blog my thoughts in no particular order.
*Corporate. My intuition tells me CPI became corporate after visiting their new website. CPI used to be independent.
*2,949 Days. I worked at CPI for eight years. I was a Research Analyst in the Research Department. The sales support staff consisted of Research, Graphics, and Administration departments.
*CPI is one of too many examples life is always changing. Life is always moving. It's rare a company is the same for decades. It's rare for people to be the same for decades. Life finds a way to change people if people don't want to change. Life finds a way to move people if people don't want to move.
*Brokers Got My Back. I realized the brokers got my back if I communicated my problems years later after I left the company. If I called out the problems, then management must solve the problems. It was like I wore the immunity idol from the TV series Survivor.
*A Cry For Help. My co-worker and I didn't get along in the department. The Research Department consisted of two people without a department manager for most of my employment days. The office manager was our closest manager. She did nothing.
My co-worker was an idiot. He was a middle-aged immature person. He had personal problems including family, health, and relationships. Work productivity was too slow. Brokers complained he completed their requests late. He took too many smoking breaks. He worked at home and worked on weekends to catch up. I think back to those years of his unprofessional behavior. Was he crying for help?
*The Building Freddy Wanted. I refer to the managing partner as "Freddy." Freddy wanted the previous location building because he had the best corner office in the two-story freestanding building. He analyzed the pros and cons of moving. His bias analysis convinced most brokers to accept the move. Objectively speaking, the company needed to move to a bigger building. The question was where in the city. Freddy wanted to move to the two-story freestanding building.
*50% of the sales support staff was divorced.
*The Dumbest Person I Ever Met. The previous office manager is the dumbest person I ever met as of today's blog post.
*I Ignored The Warning Signs. The warnings signs were clear and present. The company experienced growing pains, mismanagement, confusion, poor leadership, and, to paraphrase the late Steve Jobs, ". . . and they just didn't get it, even when they saw the map they couldn't even copy it well. How dumb do you have to be to not see it, once you see it." The company was positioned to be the number one commercial real estate company in the market by year consistently. The company had the best support staff, experienced brokers, top marketing, accurate research, and the latest technology. The company was number one for one year during my eight years. The number one was during the dot-com boom. Any half-ass company can make record profits in a good year.
The buyer who worked for three months who talked bad behind the CFO's back, the graphic artists who worked for one year and quit, the CEO who resigned, the human resources director who was fired, the Vice President of IT who was forced to resign, the helpdesk manager who was forced to resign, and the multiple projects to build the new database failed. The Vice President of IT before he resigned assigned the network administrator to build the new database out of desperation. Also, the research department manager who hired me warned me the commercial real estate statistics were calculated incorrectly before he moved out of the country. The signs were clear and present. I was a twentysomething year old naive employee.
*The Nothing Wisdom. The one wisdom I most remembered is don't be a nobody. The last research manager was a nobody. Don't be nothing. The brokers didn't like her. Management ignored her nothingness until the company cut the budget. My co-worker and I didn't like her; moreover, it was our only commonality. The last Research Department manger worked for two years. Management told the Research Department manager to find another job because she's going to be fired. The official reason she left was she found another job. The unofficial reason she left was the company terminated her.
Lesson learned: have nothing, do nothing, get nothing, be nothing, and people treat you like nothing. Never be a nobody.
*The Late Steve Jobs Ignore Problems Hoping They Went Our Way Didn't Work. The company played the Steve Jobs ignoring problems hoping they go away. Some did, some didn't. The problems they ignored became bigger problems. The company is still in business in contrast to Steve Jobs ignoring his health problems resulting in Jobs passing way due to pancreatic cancer. Perhaps, going corporate was good for the company.
*Keep Your Job By Keeping Quiet. Another example of ignoring problems. Brokers who spoke up their contracts were terminated. Sales support staff who spoke up were terminated.
*The Job Skills Were All Wrong. I was taught incorrectly. I was trained incorrectly. Everything I learned was wrong. Databases, statistics, Excel, and reports were wrong. I applied the incorrect job knowledge to my future jobs. I was ineffective. Fortunately, I corrected myself years later by self-training.
*Guinea Pig Continued. I experienced bad luck and bad timing being a guinea pig multiple times at San Jose State University; for example, a professor teaching a class for the first time, the department starting a new class series, and the university system changing the graduation requirements for new students. I was a guinea pig at the second company. Company growing pains, a new research manager, numerous failed experiments, and a new office manager with no previous experience. I was a twentysomething year old who survived without a mentor. I distrusted management.
*Winning Disguised The Problems. The company earned record profits after the dot-com recession. Management didn't break the flow or if it wasn't broken, then don't fix it. The two-man Research Department did our jobs quietly literally. I was responsible for the operations. My co-worker was responsible for the database administration. The managing partner wrote the quarterly reports. The system worked. The other sales support departments Administration and Graphics did their jobs without complaints. The end of the year the sales support staff got our yearly reviews and our merit raises. The exception was the staff who talked to management about the problems resulting in termination. Nevertheless, the company never reached number one in the commercial real estate market after the dot-com recession.
Give it time. I'm confident many of the disguised problems were exposed causing trouble which could have been prevented or minimized after I left the company.
*Cursed Freestanding Building. One could say the building cursed the company. Obviously, there were problems in a newly constructed building such as plumbing and electrical. It seemed there was a time period a broker, a staff, or the building itself a problem arisen.
*By The Numbers. The managing partner managed by the numbers. The decisions were based off sales numbers and financial numbers. Brokers were rewarded doing well. Brokers were punished doing poorly.
Update On A Past Blog
I wrote about my co-worker in Did The Dumb Ass Co-Worker Wanted To Change? on Jul 15, 2009. If you click on the link, you find out the name of the CPI company.
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