Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Straight Outta Shoreditch

A little over a week ago, I discovered that the company I work for had been bought by another, which it seems had been acquired by another, which in turn had merged with another. What does this mean for we employees of a thirty strong privately owned Shoreditch agency, suddenly thrust into the pan-European publicly listed limelight? It means we're moving to Clerkenwell.
For those of you who don't know London, this represents a step away from the inverted snobbery of artiness imposing itself on urban poverty to a more salubrious world twixt media West End and commercial City. A change in tone for the company and de facto for me.
My attitude is resolutely wait and see, greatly aided by the general haze: no one seems sure about anything, even the current company name. Who knows if there's a plan for the new organizational structure, how we'll transfer work or even where we're going to sit.
Our bosses tell us that everything will remain the same (contracts, roles, teams) but are unclear over how to reconcile this continuity with their claim that this is the greatest career opportunity any of us could have in our industry in the UK. How can everything continue with no changes and simultaneously offer us so much opportunity?
As Lisa Simpson reminds us, "opportunity" in Chinese is the same word as "crisis".

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