# Sinking ship



## ehanes7612 (May 10, 2013)

Curious to know if anyone has been an employee of a company who's CEO restructured the company for the purposes of selling it off , what trends did you see within ?


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## NYEric (May 10, 2013)

Frightening subject!  Talk to CNYCharles.


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## ehanes7612 (May 10, 2013)

True .. Watching it go around me .. It's actually interesting to see the CEO make one lie after another .. And all the irrational policy changes .. It's a trip


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## ALToronto (May 10, 2013)

Is the CEO calling it a merger? Or denying that any changes are taking place?

My husband went through such a 'merger'. He remained (he's in sales), but a lot of support staff were let go.

I was let go by one of the big 5 management consulting firms, ostensibly as a result of post-Y2K downsizing (once year 2000 came, 95% of IT work ground to a halt), but about 6 months after our department went from 185 consultants down to 20, the management consulting practice was sold to IBM. So it's possible that the whole year 2000 thing was a pretext for the downsizing. I'll never know.

Ehanes, do you think your position is at risk? I can't really advise you on what to do, but as for me, that management consulting position was the last time I was employed by someone else. I was pregnant when I was let go, and after 2 kids, I started my current business in 2004. It's no picnic, but it pays at least some of the bills. I'm having way more fun than I ever did working for someone else, and by now I'm completely unemployable.

Good luck - you'll need it.


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## ehanes7612 (May 11, 2013)

I work for a pizza company with four stores.. I am not worried about losing my job ..I am sure I can find a new job easily. I am actually more interested in figuring out what the CEO plans, by just paying attention and piecing all the clues together.. Officially , he's trying to sell off two defunct stores and consolidate everything in the remaining two stores that are profitable .. to start from there and build on.. But my suspicions are that he's trying to sell off the leases of the two defunct stores so that he can make the company look better to a buyer . He lies about various things for rumor damage control, creates irrational policy changes that look like he's making sound streamlining decisions to someone who wouldn't know better unless they worked within the company. I know that when selling a business you want the accounting and policies to reflect an efficient (even if imaginary) operation. Hours of operation are being reduced (to create better labor stats) and there's a lot of careful communication to people who have worked here a long time so as to imply how important we are. Which I think is a ploy to keep lower management in the dark.


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## ehanes7612 (May 11, 2013)

BTW, he's the new owner now too, apparently he had some deal with the old owner to gradually take over ownership for low pay


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## Ray (May 11, 2013)

I have been through this several times, and there are a number of signs of impending upheaval.

The first is internal "restructuring to improve efficiency". While improving operations is a good thing, and something I have been paid to do throughout my career, when those changes are either out of the blue, or such a drastic change (two managers from totally different areas swapping positions, for example) that it makes you wonder "what is that going to accomplish?", it's bound to be a positioning exercise, not an efficiency improvement one. Such moves may suggest that upper management knows what they're doing, but again, they don't, and it's not an efficiency thing.

Four years ago this last week, my position as global manager of logistics and customer service for a $500-million chemical company was eliminated to "reduce layers of management". Did it matter that the programs I had going were going to save $5-$6 million dollars a year? Nope. Without me being there to spearhead them, the net result was a savings of $250,000 for the year - even though I had already saved $1 million in the first third of the year. Yeah. They gave most of it back due to lack of-, or poor management later. That company was split into two, and one of them was sold to another company.

Look for political positioning. If you see folks getting more chummy with upper managers - outside of the normal brown-nosing, or in folks who normally don't do that - there is some inside information there, and the effort is designed to make themselves part of the chosen few.

If there is la lot of focus on sales no matter what it takes, yet operations is struggling, it's to make the numbers shine, increasing the apparent value of the firm.

Is the company hiring contractors, rather than replacing full-time employees who left or retired? That's an obvious indication. I am currently a contract employee at the half of the old company still remaining. The purchasing manager got wind of changes, left for another, and I was brought in to back-fill for him. At the end of this year, all centralized staff jobs - customer service, purchasing, accounting and finance, logistics - will be assumed by staff at another, larger, subsidiary in Houston, and about 50 people here in PA will be out of work. The company is not being sold, but is being merged with that other company, becoming a division of it.

I will point out that sometimes those types of activities are a prerequisite of a merger, rather than a sell-off, and can lead to opportunities you weren't aware of. My fist experience with this was a merger of 12 companies about 20 years ago, and it was great for my career, giving me the chance to more into new stuff I had never considered,p but absolutely loved.


Ray Barkalow
Sent using Tapatalk


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## ehanes7612 (May 11, 2013)

the situation isnt as sophisticated as that...basically we have a CEO who made a deal with the previous owner to accept low pay but would gain ownership over time..but seattle has so much restaurant and pizza competition that i think he's coming to realize its a waste of time to ever be able to expand ..so he's doing everything he can to prop up the portfolio of the company and sell it all off (brand name included).one of our stores has absolutely no competition and never will have (it has an exclusive lease in a soccer field park) and the downtown store is just too conveniently located not to do great business...


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## cnycharles (May 12, 2013)

listening to the dave ramsey show on the radio, i've heard people talk about business deals where someone without a whole lot of money who wanted to buy a business, made deals where they could do so over time if they had a lower salary. (or something similarly related) also, sometimes large companies may buy parts of other companies because they have one or two sections (or restaurants/greenhouses) that are really attractive but the other outlying sections (like you mention) that have higher costs, are planned for closing/sale. a former employer bought a group of greenhouses and really wanted one of them but the other two were further away and cost more, and with a tough economy they were I believe planned to be divested from the larger company. maybe not an initial plan but definitely kept closely in mind with a tough economy. thankfully I found another excellent company with the help of an executive recruiter who deals with horticultural companies and have another job. these owners seem happy to keep their business intact so i'm


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## ehanes7612 (May 19, 2013)

well, with a little more information we think we have figured out the course of events that are leading up to an eventual sale...( a coworker and I came up with this theory over some Jim Beam).
The Players
1. Previous owner (Mad Pizza): Owns soccer complex (with Mad Pizza as the sole restaurant) and is GM of sounders.
2. New Owner and still CEO of the four stores
3. Pagliacci Pizza: they are the main competition for our business model but are blowing Mad Pizza out of the water in half the delivery area, and threaten to do more damage
we think that either Pagliacci pizza approached previous owner or vice versa and they made a deal for a buyout (for several reasons , including some advertising scheme for Pagliacci and the Sounders as an incentive for Pagliacci to buy out Mad Pizza) ..but previous owner has to deal with some issues first.
Previous owner goes to CEO , they hatch a plan together that involves selling the lease of one of the stores that has lost 50 % of their business due to a new Pagliaccii store, and thus selling the remaining three stores as a package deal with all the rights to Mad Pizza ..keep in mind, the only place Pagliacci doesnt have a foothold for their delivery is around Seattle's main hospital complex, which one of our stores has prime location. The soccer complex Mad Pizza has complete monopoly of selling food to the events that are held there, and the third store is in an up and coming neighborhood dominated by Amazon.com and Biotech (Paul Allen's little pet project)..
Previous owner tells CEO how things will progress and if everything goes as planned , Ceo (new owner) gets a big chunk to retire with, regional manager gets a nice severance package , and previous owner gets a lot of ad revenue from Pagliacci for his soccer team
Pagliacci will probably keep some of the lower management and the drivers ..all the bad management and employees are being shifted to the store whose lease is being sold for a new business 
I am a delivery driver..i will quit before working for Pagliacci..cant stand the corporate BS..but in the meantime ..need to make as much savings as possible and start looking for a new job

the funny thing is..the regional manager is one of those people who loves to gossip and tell stories...and we know its just eating him up ..because he wants to tell everyone the plan but he's afraid ..so , we are hatching a plan ourselves to pry the information out of him...without him realizing that he's giving up any info


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## em_tee_w (May 20, 2013)

I never ate at Mad Pizza (when was it started?), but I admit that I liked Pagliacci's pesto pizza when I lived in the area...


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## ehanes7612 (May 20, 2013)

started in 1994/95..one store in the rich area of town
pagliacci is like the starbucks of pizza in seattle
they have something like 25 stores throughout out the metropolis and have a very solid business plan ..their pizza is good , medium tiered, a play on NY style with a fusion of California style (better than dominos ) but not anywhere near the best in that style, Piecoras is considered one of the best for NY style here in seattle...seattle has some chicago style but i have never tried it , cant do that much cheese..i prefer the Neaoplitan style but those are more in the nondelivery restaurants,]..we also have a small chain of take and bake stores ..seattle loves pizza (and pretty much anything you can ingest) ..you can pretty much find any style you can imagine, here


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## ehanes7612 (Jul 8, 2013)

Well, i decided to tender my resignation, after 5 years and 11 years off an on working at Mad Pizza (seattle)...all the signs look to a possible bankruptcy. We found out that the original owner sold all his interest to the President of the company a couple years ago. But now the President is working his way out of owning it.We suspect he's handing it over to the Operations manager, or that he is being used for rumor damage control while the President works on cooking the books. One by one, GM's have been screwed over (paycheck shortages) and are divulging little secrets they have been told..like special accounts for large catering orders that get voided later on in the POS system. I am meeting a former GM next week who was intimately involved with operations and was quietly hushed out last year. See if he is comfortable talking. This has all been very intriguing ..sleuthing around ..looking for clues. BTW, i also found out that the Operations Manager had a plan to force me to quit (they cant fire anyone because of unemployment insurance they have to pay, that possibly rises everytime you fire someone) because apparently, he is scared of me or what information I may have and that I will effectively spread rumors (shift supes tell me everything). I had a conversation with the Ops Manager yesterday when i put in my notice. He called me paranoid..i just told him..naw, paranoid implies i am scared ..i find all this really intriguing, all these things you guys are doing..told him he was either a dupe or part of it. Fun stuff..but I only want to work for people from now on with much more integrity..Mad Pizza is an old paradigm, run by an outdated mindset and outdated business plan..the day the President was hired (raised in Burger King) was the day Mad Pizza was doomed to failure. Well, that's my rant..my friends in the company and I, we are planning to make a docudrama/ comedy about Mad Pizza..some really talented people that work in there..should be funny ..( the main character is an up and coming comedienne whose tenor at mad pizza helps him realize his true talent)


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## Trithor (Jul 8, 2013)

I am saddened to learn of your predicament. As much as change can lead to good things, it tends to cause more uncertainty and stress than anything else, and the whole state of the global economy does not make things any easier.


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## ehanes7612 (Jul 8, 2013)

Trithor said:


> I am saddened to learn of your predicament. As much as change can lead to good things, it tends to cause more uncertainty and stress than anything else, and the whole state of the global economy does not make things any easier.



it's nothing to be sad about..everyone who works there knows their time is near and most of them are just riding the wave until they can find another job. Seattle's economy is doing much better and is seeing a resurgence is service oriented jobs. Mad Pizza just doesn't fit anymore and can't compete with all the new pizza places popping up..the entire concept needs to be revamped ..the 'psychotic' theme was great in the 90's with all the attention on prozac (yes , we have a pizza named The Prozac) but the novelty has died out.


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## ehanes7612 (Aug 30, 2013)

so Mad Pizza fired me three weeks ago..they gave me a laundry list of reasons..none of them true..the real reason was because I threatened to unionize and write a letter to Dept of Labor about upper management abuses.

Also found out a former employee is suing Mad Pizza for creating a hostile work environment..I am going to be a witness for him

But getting fired was awesome..had three weeks vacation and then found a job delivering pizzas at a great place (Razzis in Greenwood..some of you who live in seattle may know it)..making twice as much as before and absolutely no BS or entrenched management


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## TyroneGenade (Aug 30, 2013)

Pizza and orchids! The best life has to offer, hey?

Glad it all worked out well in the end.


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## Chicago Chad (Aug 30, 2013)

Good for you. 
It gives me hope for my job in a similar situation. I have been riding out the BS while they restructure things. In the meantime, myself and the other sales reps have suffered tremendously. Its hard to know when to cut the ties when you are good at your job and the economy is still tough, though not what it was.


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## NYEric (Aug 30, 2013)

Good to hear you bounced up!


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## SlipperFan (Aug 30, 2013)

Looks like you made sweet lemonade out of that lemon!


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## goldenrose (Sep 1, 2013)

TyroneGenade said:


> Pizza and orchids! The best life has to offer, hey?


and photography! Quite the multi-tasker! :clap::clap:


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