There was a scene in the movie 'Patton' where the Nazis, on the verge of being overrun by the American army, were furiously burning papers in some bunker and one of the German officers was lamenting 'Das ist das ende!" while another officer was looking at a photograph while wryly muttering the cause for all this trouble:
"Patton!"
which I thought was pretty damn cool. Change was coming hot on these wannabe world dominators' heels.
Well, not so dramatic but equally forceful, at least to me, is the fact that the place where I am working is undergoing a metamorphosis. Change is being thrust upon my company. They are being forced to relocate and when any operation has to do that, bunker mentality sets in. Lots of old business props are relocated, some are discarded, and you get to see that all of it was just a bunch of movie set material anyway.
I've been through this three times now and it's like the damn MASH unit is bugging out or the circus is leaving town. There is a flurry of activity and then it's over. Only the detritus of the business is left behind- the vacant facility, the empty lot, the rusted signs, the bent entrance gate fence.
Battlefield energy is what lingers at the site. The thousands of people's energy that animated the place, or passed through it, somehow remains and it's kind of eerie because you can sense it. Though the grounds may be vacant, they're still charged. No energetic healing work is ever done, no remediation of any kind occurs. What takes place is simply a real estate transaction, a purely third dimensional thing. Remodelers afterwards come in to fix the place up, demolition contractors arrive to level it, or the place gets scavenged and then is left empty 'cuz nobody wants the location or building(s).
Don’t be the last one out of this place
Krisztian Matyas- Unsplash.com
But long before the lights go out the people working there get nervous. Very nervous. The herd senses that change is afoot. A smell is detected in the air, an odd movement by upper management is seen by some employee and is breathlessly reported to the others. Snorts issue forth and agitated hooves claw the ground. Old familiar surroundings are going away and new, brighter facilities are coming. "Where will I be able to hide?" employees think. "What will be asked of me? What will the new work area be like? Who is going to be in my department?" Soooo many questions and soooo few answers.
But there isn't time for answers! The enemy is approaching and their arrival is imminent! We have to evacuate!
Das Ist Das Ende!
Can't say that some of the employees aren't happy to leave the old facility though, which months and even years ago went into slow decline as management steadily withdrew their support from it. The facility got to looking worse and worse over time 'cuz upgrades weren't happening and maintenance wasn't being done. Oh, that sort of stuff was being done enough to keep the place functional, in good enough shape to prevent any customers passing through from complaining, but pleasing to the eye it was not, especially in the areas the public couldn't land their eyes on. Deplorable and atrocious are words about those areas that come readily to mind.
Which illustrates the point of all this. Businesses don't as a rule invest a lot of money on employee workplace satisfaction. The average work area is as spartan as it can be, containing only running machinery, necessary other equipment, things being stored, and lots of noise. Inside of any employee ‘comfort’ area there's usually a crappy coffee maker, lousy chairs, some banged up cabinets, ratty carpeting, barely functional old computers, fixtures and furniture lifted from who knows where, from thrift stores even, a ghastly refrigerator, and a florescent-lit break area. Just enough and no more. Workplaces are not esthetically pleasing like corporate offices are, they're depressingly functional. And this is what most places look like during the good times! Towards the end they get, well, kinda where you don’t want to be touching anything you don’t need to be touching grungy.
But that's okay, sez management. "The new facility is where all our focus is! We're going to be packing up and moving over there soon to set up shop. So what and who cares about this dump?!"
"It's only business!"