My head began to swim and I felt sick to my stomach when the caller told me the guy who hired me was just fired by him. Now what am I going to do? His words increased the panic and anxiety in my mind.
“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “You are unique. To whatever extent you can, set up your environment to flow in a way that supports your particular needs, preferences and thinking style.” Libra
Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 102 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 23rd day of August in the summer of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Table of Contents
Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.
Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year
S2 E101 — The Story of Strange Bedfellows Saving the Day; S2 E100 — Live, Love, Work, Play, Invest and Leave a Legacy; S2 E99 — Why Pay Over $100,000 When You Don’t Have To?
Related from Season One, the Normal Year
S1 E102 — Why Is It Always Hidden in the Fine Print?; S1 E101 — From Saint to Soul Mate and Trusted Friend; S1 E100 — Running out of Determination and Grit by the 100th Day ; S1 E99 — What’s in a Name? Baby Boy Names?
Context
This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.
In previous episodes we described Start Up, Emerging Growth, Rapid Growth, Sustained Growth, Maturity and Decline stages. But, each with the emphasis on how a specific stage provides another better fit opportunity for one or more of 16 Talent Profiles.
Consequences of Not Mastering Growth Crises

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2020
We described two mini case studies of what it was like working behind the scenes at a mature companies in a financial, in a consumer industries and in another century-old university system — Part One and Two.
We now shift to a fourth example of a century-old mature organization, a multinational engineering and construction company, but this time caught by surprise which led to a major decline and gut-wrenching restructuring.
22. Internal Consultant MD&T
Part One
What became a multinational engineering and construction firm began in 1890 by three brothers in Oshkosh, Wisconsin as a saw and paper mill. Thirteen years later the company was renamed Fluor Bros. Construction Co.. It didn’t set up shop in California until 1912 when John split from his brothers, moved to Santa Ana for health reasons and in a classic story began Fluor Corporation out of his garage.
To to be closer to its oil and gas clients, Fluor’s headquarters were moved to Alhambra, in 1940 before moving again to Orange County, California in the 1960s due to concerns about the cost of living and traffic.
New Profession, New Career
I just wanted to trade working with developmentally delayed clients sporting a range of IQs from 10 to 16 to working with very bright employees in an industry with a bright shiny future of high technology.
From the Outside
Can looks be deceiving? A couple of big shiny glass boxes with “turrets” on each corner and another seven or eight stories tall glass tower represented the future to me — working in them would make a year-long career transition well worth it.
You couldn’t miss them in the corner of partially developed commercial property at the corner of the San Diego Freeway (405) and Michelson Drive.
Getting the position
My ASTD board role was strategic. Although I worked 75 miles away from Fluor’s new headquarters I created the association’s position referral function. I reviewed every new training and development position about to be advertised in our newsletter as a service to corporate education and human resources departments.
The president of our volunteer training organization phoned me with news he became the Director of the Management Development and Training group at Fluor and needed to hire some professionals. He asked if I knew anybody who might be interested.
John Brunstetter fell for my transitional skills, knowledgeable pitch and grew to trust me.
I met with him taking a sick day in the same office where I had first introduced myself to Mike Blackmore a few years earlier.
Rotations to Higher Positions
Brunstetter had replaced Mike Blackmore, who took on a more senior level position in Human Resources in the Corporate Tower before leaving for another opportunity.
Managing Change
Looking back now, as a then undiagnosed 113 Idea Packager, I continued to research and develop “my body of knowledge” accumulated in two prior careers, but needed to find a better paying and more challenging new career. Several times I became disappointed when the reality didn’t match the potential opportunity.
All my research and information interviews pointed me to training and development. An awful lot of teachers from my generation had already made the transformation out of the classroom full of kids to classrooms full of adults in corporations.
Finally, my luck changed!
First Change
Then the phone rang.
Some guy named Dutch was on the other end. I’m pretty sure most if not all of my personal property had been boxed and a little farewell lunch had been scheduled.
My head began to swim and I felt sick to my stomach when the caller told me the guy who hired me was just fired by him.
Now what am I going to do increased the panic and anxiety in my mind.
I had already accepted his offer, gave my two weeks notice and counted down how many days until I didn’t have to drive 1 hour and 30 minutes down and back each day.
My blood drained out of me as I sunk into a deep depression.
In Shock
His voice sounded like it echoed through some distant tunnel through my phone at work. Then, I heard him repeat, “Your job is not effected by this.”
Actually, he must have picked up on the long speechless pause on my end. He must have said it two or more times to reassure me and confirm he looked forward to meeting me personally on my first day.
Between a rock and hard place
I wasn’t sure. And, I didn’t know what to expect after the first day. Fluor like the University of California in Irvine commanded a prestigious reputation in Orange County. And I’d save on gas and wear and tear on our Volvo. But, who knows what happens after the first few weeks or months? I desperately wanted to know why he was fired. And, if that act meant something bad was happening in the not too distant future
Misjudged the Opportunity
Did I misjudge the situation I found myself in at the end of my career transition? Yes and no. Tantamount on my mind was a shift from providing services to client populations suffering from brain injury caused low IQs and vocational services to less educated with back and stress issues to employees with advanced education — in this case engineers, mostly civil and structural — generally a mix of 112 Loyal Survivalists, 110 Analytical Specialists, 114 Brand-as-Experts and 116 Institutional Traditionalists.
But, the shiny glass buildings and corporate tower might have tipped me off if I had known any better. Was it a high tech company on the inside?
Imposter Waiting to Be Uncovered
But, Fluor was a big change for me compared to what I had been doing. It was scary. I didn’t have the confidence coming into the company since I felt I was impersonating a professional but was really only faking it until I made it.
I had no feel for what was going on. I just knew we had no leader for 30 days. But we were a group of internal consultants and classroom trainers.
I absorbed everything I could from the rest of the Management Development & Training staff.
Just a Number
Right off the bat I didn’t like what the HR rep said during the on boarding process about essentially keeping your nose to the grindstone and you’ll do well.
It kind of echoed what Blackmore told me, “We don’t air our dirty laundry on the clothesline.”
What’s that old saying? Why are employees like mushrooms? Employers feed them shit and keep them in the dark.
Internal Consultant 40,000 Employees
For five years I “faked it until I made it” as an internal consultant in the management development and training.
Other than my college and university experience, this was my first taste of working in a large organization — 40,000 employees at its peak with 6,000 in the corporate office.
Building
The company the old-timers told me everything changed when they had moved from a military-looking, defense contractor set of building from all over Los Angeles into Irvine’s high-tech looking glass-mirroring compound.
As soon as they did everyone began dressing up into ties and three-piece suits and had to wear photo id badges. Kinda like when the raw recruits emerged from the barbershop in basic training and couldn’t recognize everyone.
Everything was new. Every floor looked the same when you exited the elevator, until you noticed subtle color variations in the carpet and wall decorations.
Confidentiality Location
Our office entrance was on the first floor just before everyone took the escalator down a level to the open cafeteria and enclosed, but open aired patio.
Our group’s location may have been intentionally planned so managers and employees could seek confidential meetings for advice in sticky situations without calling too much undue attention. Like a sign of weakness. Or a signal that someone was waving dirty laundry.
Strong Command and Control Under Glass
They still kept their strong control and command management style while they were able to fit everyone into the glass compound, except one division — the Advanced Technology Division. Everyone in the high potential poll of future executives, no matter the location, congregated monthly for high level leadership presentations in our building.
One year a helicopter had flown in some well-known, well-healed politicos who made their entrance from the stairwell in the middle of the open aired patio into the normal eating area, except it was late afternoon and this was the supervisors club meeting — and the Secretary of State on this one occasion was addressing us in a barely distinguishable heavy accent as a favor since he had been on retainer to the CEO.
He pontificated on the world’s global events and by extrapolation which business opportunities Fluor should strategically capitalize on.
Here’s What I Didn’t Know
In short order big changes were coming my way after accepting an offer to work for a growing, mature company in the engineering and construction industry with 45,000 employees worldwide and 6,000 in Irvine, mostly in the Southern California Division.
The executive team misread the length of an industry-wide recession which plunged the mature engineering and construction into a prolonged decline.
In three years Fluor’s backlog went from $16 billion to $4 billion and reported $633 million in losses which triggered years of difficult restructuring.
I felt my new career slip away. Except another consultant and I saw an intrepreneural opportunity to advance what he had been piloting already and to provide services for hundreds and maybe thousands about to get their pink slips.
Internal Outplacement
That might have been a coincidence, or an omen, but one of the first major projects we urgently began developing was outplacement. Luckily, I knew enough from my Univance work to be dangerous and Tom had already been introducing Career Development Planning as a pilot project. But, the shit was hitting the fan.
It was a hard sell to executives who knew nothing about outplacement.
They wanted to know how many people took advantage? They were laid off, right? Wouldn’t they feel like they had the scarlet letter — “L” on their forehead? And wouldn’t people walking the halls notice them with job-finding binders which would negatively effect morale?
Surfaced Their Resistance, Dumbed Down Our Aspirations
So, we convinced top management to allow us to offer a three hour seminar and a binder covering the best overlooked ways to find a new job. And then follow that up with more in-depth workshops and counseling — all on site.
That bite sized chunk turned out to be much easier for them to swallow. And, working everything out comprehensively gave us the advantage of anticipating almost all of the failure points to avoid.
CEO Blunder
The Orange County Register published an interview with Fluor’s CEO who said, primarily for stock market investors, they were getting rid of the deadwood.
Word got around fast. Out of 20 or so attendees in the first seminar only one or two didn’t bring a copy of that article with them.
It felt like the villagers armed with pitch forks storming the Frankenstein laboratory. I had to throw out the seminar agenda and improvise on the spot.
Our party line was to focus on finding a job now, because the job market wasn’t booming and they’d need every tip, trick and luck they could muster.
“Then if you still feel the same, sue later.” I said that last part in a whisper.
After the first 45 minutes of them venting how unfair it was and recommending lawyers who would take their cases, as engineers they pointed out that they didn’t fall asleep at the helm of the ship and didn’t underestimate the duration of the industry downturn.
All my partner and I could do was to nod, tell them we feel their pain (knowing they would look at us while thinking we were less valuable to the company then they were), and steer them back to “Here’s what you need to know, how to sign up for workshops and one-on-one coaching.”
Which woke me up to life in the fast lane as I processed hundreds through our internally run outplacement programs adding a staff and scheduling one-on-one advisory sessions, while reaching out to human resources recruiters in southern California companies needing talented people.
Evidence
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“4” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Routines are like train tracks; once established, you can chug along to your destination without too much drama. Routines will help you do things that would be very hard otherwise.” Aries
And that works both ways, right? When routines and habits become too entrenched they become so hardened that it’s nearly impossible to choose another track. The insidious thing, is we don’t know what we don’t know. Good stuff gets screened out as the world flies past our window.
“4” Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “If you can’t say a thing succinctly, that only means you’re still trying to work out which part of it is important. The principle holds true in any pursuit. Economy will come with experience.” Leo
Is that why as an introvert (INTP) I need to let things cool down and spend an ungodly amount of time processing what just happened?
“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “You are unique. To whatever extent you can, set up your environment to flow in a way that supports your particular needs, preferences and thinking style.” Libra
Hmm. So you’re saying holed away in my office, away from everyday distractions helps my thinking style? That would be 113 Idea Packager aka INTP?
“3” Steve Aoki, 41: “Today, you’ll be doing the typical you thing but on an atypical scale. Working much bigger or much smaller than usual will highlight your talent in such a way as to teach you where your strengths and weaknesses lie.” Sagittarius
Wow, if you say so. Either this is so profound and I’m so dense, or I’ll have to get back with you at the end of the day.
Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead:
An argument can be made that humans, like ants, bees and termites, are eusocial creatures. It follows that, like ants, bees and termites, most individuals do not do well on their own.
They need the support of the swarm in order to thrive. For this reason, most humans have a visceral reaction to things like noninclusion, shunning and other forms of rejection.
While rejection may not be physically harmful, it hits at a primal level. For humans, to be ostracized from the group has historically been a fate akin to death and, indeed, would often lead there.
Without the protection of the tribe, one person in the wild is vulnerable and constantly challenged, so it follows that a fear of rejection is a normal and useful part of socialization.
Since most people fear and avoid rejection, those who go the opposite way are regarded with admiration. And those who risk rejection often become somewhat immune to the otherwise crippling effects of rejection-fear. More and greater options are open to those who are unafraid to try for them.
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
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- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4733 to 4807.
Foresight
Quality-of-Life
Long-Form
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- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate
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