In the Huffington blog, former Pfizer vice president Peter Rost recently lamented his current state of unemployment, greed and the "robber barron" CEOs who are driving this country to rack and ruin.
Agreed that CEOs in the U.S. make entirely too much money and that the cost of drugs in this country is absurdly high, and that life isn't fair, but, until recently,Mr. Rost wasn't doing too badly, either. He is not a downsized metalworker from the rust belt, but an M.D. and executive with years of experience who still has support from the media and the public.
And if you must rant, as Mr. Rost does in the blog, why start the rant off by crying about your own particular situation, and later single out your former employer's CEO in such a childish manner?
What I don't understand is why he didn't act "proactively" and go elsewhere, long ago, since he surely must have expected Pfizer to fire him. And if one disagreed with an employer's policies to such a strong degree, would one want to remain with that company, much less accept [such substantial] remuneration from it?
Downsizing is a painful thing, and, all too often, it's handled horribly. Unemployment is also extremely rough, so here's a fervent wish that Mr. Rost finds his way to another high-six-figure position soon.
But I confess that I do feel a lot more sympathy for the thousands of five-figure-to-low-six-figure professionals, in all industries, some of whom have invested time and resources in graduate-level education, yet find themselves repeatedly downsized---through no fault of their own. Some of them never really grasp the fact that factors much larger than "job performance" are at work, and their self-esteem never fully rebounds.
Recent news reminded us of the engineers and others who will soon lose their positions at [changing to a different industry here]Lucent when the new acquisition is final---adding to the many thousands who have preceded them in waves of downsizings that that particular company didn't always handle very well. Also read that 3M may be putting its branded pharmaceuticals unit on the block---hope that a buyer is found and that more jobs won't be lost there.
-AMS
