My company is merging with another firm
My company is merging with another firm, and some people will get booted. Is there anything I can do to protect myself?
answer:
Absolutely. Take a look around and see who the winners are going to be. They’ll be the ones who look all brisk and sleek and juicy when they come into the office every day, moving between floors like mountain climbers, showing up at all the meetings energized and even frenetic from all their busywork. The losers will look just the opposite—tired, worried, resentful, paranoid, and a bit drippy. If you want to be a loser, hang out with them. If you want to be on the winning team, pick the guy you know best in that vector—even if you don’t know him all that well—and start keeping his company. Send him corporate roses of some kind. Be present as much as you can. If you’re good, and lucky, you’ll be targeted as one of the old guys whom the new guys can get along with. They can’t fire everybody. They need bridges. Be one.