{"chapter_no":"6","chapter_title":"Layoffs at the Plant","book_id":"3","book_name":"Springville","subchapter_no":"0","page_no":"409","page_number":"1","verses_count":0,"total_pages":8,"page_content":"

 <\/p>

Chapter 6<\/p>

Layoffs at the Plant<\/h1><\/p>

 <\/p>

The plant manager retires, starting a chain of events inside the plant—Mark applies for the job<\/i> <\/i>
but loses out to someone of superior education and work experience—His job at the plant is eliminated
when the business is restructured.<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

 <\/p>

 <\/p>

In the fall of 1978, Frank and Ellen Dannehy established a small manufacturing plant
outside of Provo, Utah. Initially, there were only thirty employees and, of those, most were
students of a nearby university who worked only part time. For a student heavily engaged with
school, the demands of class and study often dominate all of one’s thinking and time. In that
context, a part-time job is merely a means to support the greater education goal and the increased
earning potential of having a college degree later on. There were, however, a handful of full-time
employees, and Mark Chandler was among those. Mark took his employment very seriously,
hoping to grow with the company and build a long-term career. He worked hard every day to
learn everything he could about the business and to make himself as valuable as possible. <\/p>

 <\/p>

As the business grew, and as the number of employees increased, it became necessary to
find a larger facility. A couple of miles away in the southern part of the city, a suitable building
was found and quickly purchased. The new site, approximately 150,000 square feet, had plenty
of room for expansion and would ultimately become the trademark image of the business to
customers and the public. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Thirty years later, in the year 2009, Mark now held the title of manufacturing manager in
the plant. In most respects, Mark had things pretty nice in his job. He had a good salary and
benefits; a nice office, spacious enough to hold meetings with his staff every day; a fairly new,
executive-style desk; a new computer with two large screens; and a comfortable, rolling office
chair that had been his for many years––a chair he liked and was very proud of.<\/p>

 <\/p>

The plant had grown to a point where it now employed over four hundred people, the vast
majority in the manufacturing area under Mark's responsibility. It had taken a long time to get
operations in the plant fully under control and running smoothly. Getting operators on the
production line, both full time and part time, to follow procedures and execute tasks properly,
had always been the most difficult challenge. Nevertheless, in recent years he had gotten things
closer to where he wanted them and, overall, the plant was performing at a very high level. Mark
was quite proud of all the progress that had been made and where they stood as a business. As
well he should be, for the plant was a showpiece of excellence in manufacturing within the <\/p>

community and was often used by the local chamber of commerce to attract other large
businesses to the area. <\/p>

 <\/p>

There were many similarities between the stake of the Church in which Mark served as
leader and the Provo plant in which he was employed as the manufacturing manager. In the
plant, there were eight main work centers. Likewise, his stake was organized into eight wards,
each one having its own geographic boundaries. Each work center had operators laboring at
machines every day in three shifts––day, swing, and graveyard. Similarly, in each of the eight
wards, members of the Church performed important labors in their homes and neighborhoods all
day long. Every work center in the plant had a supervisor and lead operators to support the
machine operators in their tasks. In much the same way, each ward had a bishopric, priesthood
quorum leaders, and Relief Society leaders called and set apart to support the members in their
assigned tasks. There were mechanical and electrical technicians who moved throughout the
plant’s work centers assisting supervisors and fixing the machines when called upon. These
could be likened to the high councilmen and others called to positions in the stake where duties
crossed ward boundaries. Each work center in the plant had many machines active in the
manufacturing assembly line; instructions and regular training were provided to help operators
perform their assigned work properly. Similarly, Sunday School, priesthood, Relief Society,
youth, and primary teaching manuals were provided to instructors in the wards. Gospel doctrine
training classes were taught every Sunday to the members, teaching them how to be better
persons in life and how to better perform their Church callings and assignments. <\/p>

 <\/p>

And just as he worked hard every day to make the plant profitable and successful for its
owners, as president of the Springville East Stake, Mark worked hard with his counselors and the
high council to make the Church successful in the Springville area. <\/p>

 <\/p>

In a plant such as this, there were always the everyday challenges of product markets and
normal economic cycles. Customer demand, product pricing, quality control, competitors,
marketing initiatives, technology advances, and trends in the industry were the constant worry of
a business executive, and Mark was no different. Nevertheless, as a company, they had done well
enough servicing their customers in the past that there had been few layoffs, and when reductions
in force had been needed, they were usually planned ahead of time through attrition or by
reassigning persons to new jobs within the organization. Mark had been a force in developing the
company’s manpower strategy, desiring that the plant continue to be a good source of jobs in the
Utah County area. This strategy had been effective in maintaining stability in the plant’s work
force, which he saw, ultimately, as the key to success for his own job and career.<\/p>

 <\/p>

The plant manager, a man named Peter Yeates, was Mark’s boss. He was an older man in
his sixties and had been placed in charge of the plant by the owners fifteen years before. He was
a kind man and a wonderful ambassador of the plant to customers and vendors alike who visited
the facility. He was more of a people person, however, and not someone well-versed in the
technical aspects of manufacturing; thus, he was dependent on Mark to handle the main
operations of the plant every day. Mark always kept him informed of the important issues but
was otherwise free to manage the details as he saw fit. This worked out well since Mark liked the
freedom to make decisions and solve problems on his own without outside interference. Peter
trusted Mark fully and always backed him in his decisions. And there was no arguing with the <\/p>

results. The two of them working together in this way had achieved great success, and they were
well-liked by virtually all of the employees.<\/p>

 <\/p>

Peter, though, had been telling everyone over the past year of his plans to retire, and it
was not long before that day had finally arrived. A going-away party was held in his honor, and
plans were put in place to select the new plant manager. <\/p>

 <\/p>

The owners met with four or five candidates over the next few weeks, and Mark, too, was
invited to interview for the job. Mark was well-liked by the owners and had received credit for
much of the success achieved at the plant, particularly for its strong financial performance over
the preceding five years. <\/p>

 <\/p>

But there were also things that counted against him in the competition for the job. He had
only a two-year degree in business management from a local junior college, whereas all the other
candidates being considered had at least a master’s degree; one even had a doctorate degree in
manufacturing engineering from a famous graduate school back East. <\/p>

 <\/p>

This last candidate, in fact, a man named Thomas Hawkins, impressed the owners for
another reason––he had a strong background in emerging technologies that would be important
in the development of new products. Thomas, therefore, seemed like the most obvious choice for
the position. In the week that followed, he was notified by the owners that he had won the job.
His first day working at the plant came three weeks later after he had found a home in the Provo
area. Thomas was divorced and had no wife coming to join him. He did, however, have plans for
two of his older children to come out from Bristol to stay with him once the current school year
was over.<\/p>

 <\/p>

As might be expected, Mark was heartbroken when notified he had not been selected for
the job. But he would soon have greater worries. He quickly noticed Thomas had a much
different management style than his old boss. Mark and Peter would usually meet together once
or twice a week in the plant manager’s office. These were friendly meetings, the two of them
talking about upcoming customer visits, progress on monthly production goals, and the day-to-
day plant business. Mark was accustomed to being the focal point of all important decisions and
the main source of information to the plant manager, and even to the owners at times. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Thomas didn’t operate that way. He preferred to manage operations of the plant
personally and make all of the key decisions. He held a two-hour, one-on-one meeting with Mark
on the first day, but requested no further meetings after that. And so, with more than two weeks
having transpired since Thomas first came on board, Mark began to worry. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Did I fall out of favor somehow with the new <\/i>boss?<\/i> Did<\/i> I say or do something wrong? <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

W<\/i>hy doesn’t he <\/i>call me, email me, or set up another meeting<\/i>?<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Thomas seemed to have his own plan, meticulously working through the existing
organization of the plant, interviewing one-on-one the department heads, engineers, and other
key personnel. <\/p>

 <\/p>

On one occasion, Thomas asked Greg Wilson, a lead production supervisor, and one of
Mark’s key staff persons, to put together an overview of the equipment and processes used in the
plant, processes Mark himself had largely put into place over the years. This seemed like an
obvious breach of protocol to Mark. Before he had been worried, but now he was becoming
upset at what was going on. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Why <\/i>would Thomas bypass me and go directly to Greg on something like that? <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

I would have been happy to do that for him. He could have at least showed the simple
courtesy of discussing it with me first before going to Greg. <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Thomas's actions were getting out of control, or at least Mark thought as much. He
wasn’t being consulted for things clearly within his area of responsibility. And he was not the
only one thinking this way; the other department heads had similar worries about the new plant
manager and what he was up to. Rumors ran rampant throughout the plant, some even
speculating that the plant itself might be closed. In response to this, a memo was soon drafted
and posted on the plant manager’s door. It read as follows:<\/p>

 <\/p>

All <\/i>Provo plant <\/i>operations are currently under review by Mr<\/i>.<\/i> Hawkins and consultants <\/i>of <\/i>
R<\/i>KG<\/i> <\/i>Business Solutions<\/i>. Please <\/i>hold on to any questions you have during this time<\/i>. <\/i>We will
update everyone as soon as possible once our<\/i> review<\/i> has been<\/i> completed.<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Sincerely,<\/i><\/p>

Jean Wilson<\/i><\/p>

Executive Assistant to Thomas L. Hawkins<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

With the posting of this memo, almost every employee in the plant now had that sick
feeling in their stomachs of impending doom... the feelings one has during a time of layoffs or
rumors of a plant closure. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Were<\/i> their <\/i>jobs<\/i> safe? <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Will there be a reorganization of <\/i>top <\/i>management?<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Will production lines at the plant be moved to another manufacturing location<\/i> overseas<\/i>?<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

In this environment, it seemed to both manager and staff alike that a game of musical
chairs might soon be played out, a sad and tragic game administered by the human resources
department that goes something like this. <\/p>

 <\/p>

First, top management determines the layoff plan. Second, after receiving notification of
the layoffs, the HR manager quietly walks around the building in the evening hours and locks the
doors of a predetermined number of staff offices. Third, on the following morning, when
everyone arrives to work at eight o’clock, music is played on the PA system. Hearing the music,
all managers, supervisors, and staff persons in the plant rush through the hallway, trying to find <\/p>

one of the remaining unlocked office doors, battling with others nearby to sit on the office chair
before the music stops. Finding an open office and sitting on a chair signifies that you still have a
job!<\/p>

 <\/p>

<\/span>But this was no child’s game. These were real people with real fears. It was a somber
time for everyone employed at the plant, but the greatest fear of all was had by the longer-
standing employees of the factory, especially the many working moms, both married and single.
These mothers depended heavily on the modest income and health care benefits their jobs
provided in support of their families. What would they do if they lost their jobs? It was a time for
worry, a time for family prayer, a time to seek the comfort of the Spirit in their lives, for the
uncertainty of what lay ahead was always foremost in their minds. Already they had the worries
of the working poor. But now they were confronted with the prospect of having no income at all.
Arriving to work in the morning, and leaving to go home at night, the worry was great for
everyone. It was unclear whether anyone at all in the plant would still have a job once the results
of the “operations review,” as it was called, were announced. As for Mark, he felt particularly
vulnerable given his high salary, a fear that would soon prove to be well-founded. <\/p>

 <\/p>

After a few more weeks of analysis, the review was completed. Thomas, however,
decided not to release the information right away, even though he had already shared the results
with the owners and had their full support to implement the new plan. Instead, he decided to take
time to assess his current management team and decide which of them he wanted to bring
forward into the new organization he was creating. Having had a full month now as the plant
manager, and a good feel for the operations at the plant, he decided it was time to start holding
weekly staff meetings with the plant’s management team.<\/p>

 <\/p>

The first of these meetings came the following Monday in the main conference room.
Thomas introduced himself formally to the group and allowed each manager to follow in turn.
He talked about his extensive experience in manufacturing and the management methods he had
used while at his prior job, highlighting the successes he had achieved there. As might be
expected of a new executive coming in from outside the company, he wanted the current
management team to respect him and to buy into his new philosophy. <\/p>

 <\/p>

There had been some hints already that Thomas was not too keen on the way Mark had
set up the manufacturing processes at the plant over the years. It seemed to some that Thomas
considered Mark an amateur––first, because Mark didn’t have even a four-year college degree,
let alone a master's or doctorate degree, and second, because Mark had almost no engineering
experience. To Mark and the other managers, however, the obvious success of the plant seemed
to be very strong evidence as to how well things had been managed in the past and, therefore, the
reason why they should remain unchanged well into the future. Thomas thought differently. He
saw a very exciting growth opportunity for the company and had sold the owners on a
completely new approach of doing business going forward. In support of this new approach, he
wanted to start doing things “The Bristol Way” immediately, with procedures, systems, and even
personnel brought in from his old plant in Connecticut. How Mark and others would fit into this
new company structure was not yet known, but it soon would be made clear. <\/p>

“Mark, I was trying to find a scrap report for the plant this morning and I was told we
don’t have one!” said Thomas.<\/p>

 <\/p>

“Let me explain that,” replied Mark. “We tried in the past to implement a scrap tracking
system, but we found it slowed the operators down. We did purchase a pretty good system, but it
was taking so much time to update every day that operators became more worried about updating
the system correctly than completing their normal tasks running the machines. It caused them to
lose focus, and they ended up making more mistakes that way. We found that our scrap costs
skyrocketed during that year, so Peter and I made the decision to stop using it.”<\/p>

 <\/p>

“That’s nonsense!” snapped Thomas. “Back in Bristol, we successfully implemented a
scrap tracking system in just over three months, and I can’t see any reason why a plant as small
as this one, that makes far less sophisticated products, can’t have one as well. I’m actually
surprised you guys haven't already met with disaster with your customers. How can your process
engineers even know what to look for when trying to fix problems?”<\/p>

 <\/p>

“Well, we––” Mark was cut off in mid-sentence. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“Greg, I want you to team up with Mark and get this thing rolling, top priority. Both of
you come to my office after this meeting, and I'll get my old production supervisor back in
Bristol on the phone. If needed, we’ll fly him out here so he can show you guys how the system
works and you can see how to integrate it with your ERP system. That might save time. He can
also get you in touch with the consultants we used on the project so you can get a quote from
them.”<\/p>

 <\/p>

Mark’s face became pale. Never before had Peter bypassed him in such a major decision.
Nor had he ever been humiliated like this before in front of the plant's management team. The
other department heads were similarly surprised, noticing how quickly Mark’s countenance had
changed. Nobody felt safe. Mark leaned back in his chair and remained quiet for the rest of the
meeting. Everyone had gotten the message––Thomas was in charge now and was going to run
things his own way. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Returning to his office after the meeting, Mark sat at his desk and stared at his computer
monitor with a blank expression. His pride had been hurt. The situation, however, was more
serious than that. He felt the layoff butterflies again in his stomach; his job and those of many
others in the plant were clearly at risk. Unlike Peter, the new plant manager didn’t seem to need
or even respect him at all. Nor did he seem very impressed with the production processes that
Mark had put in place. What Mark had thought to be of great value to the plant employees, to the
owners, and even to the Provo community, had been quickly wiped out by Thomas with a few
offhand comments.<\/p>

 <\/p>

Mark was afraid, and even a little intimidated. Thomas not only had an impressive
doctorate degree from a prestigious graduate school, but like Mark himself, he had many years of
work experience to go with it, including having been plant manager at a much larger
manufacturing facility. He also seemed to be very sharp on the engineering side of the business,
talking shop with the engineers and impressing everyone in the room with his vision of new <\/p>

product ideas for their customers. This strong background in engineering was particularly
embarrassing to Mark, since everyone knew, including the engineers, he was weak in that area. <\/p>

 <\/p>

He lamented, I <\/i>sure <\/i>wish I had spent more years<\/i> going to<\/i> college<\/i> when I was younger.
How can I compete <\/i>with a guy like that<\/i>? He seems to know so much more than I do.<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

The writing was on the wall—Mark's career path in life was about to change.<\/p>

 <\/p>

The following week, the results of the new management review were made public. The
management team would be reorganized and the plant itself would be changing. A new company
was being formed with divisions organized along product lines and market segments. The
manufacturing plant in Provo was safe, but it would no longer be the sole manufacturing location
for the company. For each of their existing product lines, make or buy decisions would be
regularly evaluated to see what made the most sense to do as a business. The Provo plant would
compete with bids given by third-party vendors on each of the products it was currently
manufacturing. In fact, as part of the review, there had already been an announcement that one of
the plant’s older production lines would be transferred over to a vendor and then shut down at
year's end. Twenty to thirty employees at the Provo plant would be laid off once the transition to
the new vendor was complete.<\/p>

 <\/p>

Thomas was the obvious choice to be the president of the newly formed company. Vice
presidents were then selected from among the department heads. Jackie Hunter was fortunate to
be selected as one of these, promoted from her position as Director of Quality Assurance to vice
president over the same. While she had suffered great afflictions in her life up to this point, she
could not help but notice the blessings coming her way now. Yet she truly mourned for the
others, like Mark and those targeted to lose their jobs at year-end, wondering what she might do
to help them. The headcount of her department was to be increased, giving her further
responsibility and more people to manage. Thomas was a big fan of hers, being very
complimentary of the quality inspection procedures she had put in place over the last two years.
She had also been the lone holdout in management, pushing strongly for reinstatement of the
unpopular scrap tracking system, but had been largely rebuffed, even by Mark. So she quickly
became a favorite of Thomas in the new management team. Thomas, being unmarried and
looking for a wife and stepmother for his children, also had the beginnings of a romantic interest
in her, although thus far there had not been an opportunity for him to engage her socially.<\/p>

 <\/p>

Others in management were not as lucky. There were to be two new senior vice president
positions created for sales and marketing, as well as for finance, superseding the previous
positions held by department heads of the same. Like Mark, the managers of these two areas had
little in the way of schooling, having worked their way up the ladder over many years from
entry-level jobs. Both of them were going to be allowed to interview for the new vice president
positions, but the HR manager had told them that their chances were not good. Thomas,
however, did work hard with the HR department to help them find jobs with equivalent pay, and
even went to great efforts through his contacts to find attractive positions for them elsewhere
around the nation. Both of these managers, however, wanted to stay in the valley. They
respectfully declined the opportunity to relocate, making plans to leave the company at month's
end. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Mark, out of respect for his seniority with the company, was given the chance by Thomas
to stay on at his current salary, but in a somewhat diminished role. His title in the new company
would be “Production Supervisor – Provo Plant Operations,” reporting to the new Vice President
of Worldwide Manufacturing soon to be hired. Thomas, for now, would act in that role himself
until the vacancy was filled. Because of his lack of formal education, and given the poor way
Thomas viewed what he had done in the plant over so many years, Mark saw no point in asking
to interview for the new vice president position. <\/p>

 <\/p>

While he was able to maintain his current salary, there was a clear demotion in both title
and responsibilities, further damaging Mark’s pride. Thus, it was becoming more and more
difficult for him to come to work each day. He was \"just a supervisor” again, no longer holding
an executive position in the plant. And, in fact, to add insult to injury, the new vice president of
manufacturing would be taking over his beautiful office up front and a new one would be built
for him next to the work center supervisors on the production floor. Humiliation was coming at
every turn of the road.<\/p>

 <\/p>

In addition, it was soon announced that a key underling of his, Greg Wilson, had been
promoted to a new management position above him. He would be creating a new department and
given the title of “Vice President of Strategic Projects.” His first task would be to spearhead the
implementation of the new scrap tracking system. This promotion of Greg over him was the last
straw, filling Mark with rage. Greg had been his closest friend and someone he had spent a lot of
time training and developing in the past years. Losing Greg from within his organization meant
there would now be a greater workload for him on the supervision side of things. He could no
longer manage things from his office as before with meetings, emails, phone calls, and so forth.
Instead, he would need to be out on foot in the production floor all day long, closely working
with the operators and work center supervisors in their different areas. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Mark agreed to stay on in this diminished role for now, wisely avoiding any show of
emotion around Thomas or the other managers. But his plan was to leave soon. He was furious.<\/p>

 <\/p>

I’m the executive manager here at the plant with the most seniority and they're treating
me like a <\/i>dog! Thomas<\/i> has<\/i> humiliated <\/i>me <\/i>over and over <\/i>in <\/i>the last few weeks<\/i> and<\/i> now <\/i>I have to
do Greg’s job as well as my own<\/i>! <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

That’s it! I’m <\/i>gone! I need to <\/i>start looking for a new job<\/i> immediately!<\/i><\/p>"}