Custodians

For some, workplaces become something larger than just a place to earn some money. They take on the role of servicing many multidimensional human needs : social, emotional, even physical. It makes sense. A worker will typically spend the best hours of the day inside the walls of a company performing tasks and solving problems, and a person is more than just a task completer. A person has many needs.

Companies are born, they grow, they attempt to return some value to shareholders, then at some point they cease to exist. Maybe its through acquisition, maybe it’s through bankruptcy. In fact, chances are that the average person will likely live longer than the brands that are in market today

A recent study by McKinsey found that the average life-span of companies listed in Standard & Poor’s 500 was 61 years in 1958. Today, it is less than 18 years. McKinsey believes that, in 2027, 75% of the companies currently quoted on the S&P 500 will have disappeared. 

So it’s worth reflecting that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense investing emotional attachment to any kind of company workplace. Once you leave, no-one will remember what battles were won or lost, what projects were completed or cancelled, the promotions that were made, the political gains that were made

It’s finitedom at its best. Your role will end, perhaps even before the company does. So if you basically can feel like you left the company in a better place than when you arrived, that’s pretty good going I think. Someone gets to have a turn at playing the game that you once did.

It can be surreal going back to a workplace years after leaving it. This place is under someone elses custodianship now. The new owners have changed some things. Rooms are different, the walls are painted a different colour, and the furniture has been rearranged. People you once knew are no longer there, merely ghosts of organisations past.

Still, it radiates a familiar energy. Memories of coffees and meetings. Innovations and advances. Anxiety and disappointment. Friendships and achievement.