The boss sold my husband.  It’s exactly as it sounds. Now, before anyone gets offended... DH is not obligated to approve of or accept the new situation. But, does he really have a choice???

This is not a booming economy in case you haven’t noticed. There are way too many people vying for the few jobs available. Granted my husband possesses a unique set of job skills that would make him difficult to replace; difficult... not impossible. So why sell the man? Simply stated; money.

The owners have never had a reason to fault DH’s work. He’s an artist, for goodness sake AND a math whiz… one of those self taught, rare, left and right brain thinkers. He’s managed to keep his department solvent and profitable in an industry that has seen much of its clientele shift to offshore providers. The business owners are tied to New York City textiles. They see life through a radically different prospective than a rural upstate manufacturing stand point. The truth is they have never been comfortable with the coloring facet of their business. They inherited the management of this company when their upstate partner decided to retire. At this point they were forced to move from silent capital providing partners to active management of the company. They found that they very much preferred giving the orders, siphoning off the profit and letting some other little guy have the headache of making it all happen.

So for the past month DH has been unknowingly auditioning for his own job. ‘New boss’ has kicked the tires, checked the teeth, made him spin in the town square, so to speak while they weighed the pro’s and con’s of acquiring him along with the entire company division. Meanwhile, ‘Old boss’ has been shifting as much capital as possible back into the industry side of the company by filling as many orders as feasible before the sale leaving DH caught between the tests and trials of the ‘New boss’ and the production demands of ‘Old boss’.

‘New boss’ came back with a decision. They would gladly take the dye division off ‘Old bosses’ hands on one condition only. DH had to be part of the deal. That’s when the haggling began.

Old boss: He’s a valuable asset to the company. We could move him to Plant Manager in the Knitting division. (Translation… give us more money).

New boss: We’ll give you more money.

Old Boss: He’s a natural to run the Finishing and Frames. (Translation… give us more money).

New boss: We’ll give you more money.

Old boss: It’s going to take quite some time to train someone else to fill those positions. After all DH already holds a Management role. He knows the strengths and weaknesses of our current employees. They respect him. We really can’t see our way to letting him go at the moment. (Translation… give us more money).

New boss: We’ll give you more money.

Old boss: SOLD!!!!!

There are some advantages to being sold.

·        He still has a job. DH is at an age where finding a new job becomes increasingly difficult.

·        No interruption in his health care coverage. It means a new provider but we’ve been through that nearly every year for the last ten years.

·        He’s actually going to be working in the same facility. ‘New boss’ is moving his entire operation into DH’s current location. ‘Old boss’ is renting the building to ‘New boss’. (More money… see a pattern here)

              There are some disadvantages too.

                                                    No more money  for DH.