My Office Is Moving Today.......Bought By Getty

kbg32

kbg32

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Getty Images purchased the company I have been working for, MediaVast. More than half the company has been laid off. I am lucky to have survived the take-over so far. We were located on W. 27th Street and 6th Avenue, and are moving to the Getty offices on Varick and Canal. What was once a great small, lively company to work for, has now become part of a mega corporate giant with many rules, regulations, and a sea of cubicles. My new office windows look out on the Holland Tunnel Plaza and I can look directly into it. You cannot believe the amount of car traffic that surrounds this building that one has to walk through to reach the front door. I am saddened. Two previous companies I've worked for have been taken over by them as well and I was fortunate enough to leave just within weeks before the buyouts. Now I am caught.

I guess this is the way of the future and I really don't want any part of it....
 
I just got turfed no warning or anything, be thankful you still have a paycheck while you figure out your next move.
 
Sorry to hear of this. This happened to a friend of mine who was head of design at a London agency... a couple of weeks ago a photographer friend called me to say that her agency has been taken over by Getty, too...

If it's any consolation, once these media monoliths have existed for 10 years or so, and usually run the businesses they've acquired and hoped to expand "via synergy" into the ground, they usually get rid of them again. I don't account myself old, but I've seen a couple of cycles of this already...
 
I worked for a small plastics manufacturing company for 10 years before we were bought out by a major corp. I stayed on for another year before finally retiring. Couldn't handle the big business rules....and lack of safety protocols....just production is all they wanted..

Small companies are becoming a thing of the past..
 
steamer said:
I just got turfed no warning or anything, be thankful you still have a paycheck while you figure out your next move.
Click to expand...

Yes, I am thankful I have a paycheck. This couldn't come at worse time, as my wife and I are in contract for an apartment. Just feel pretty shaky about all this. I've been unemployed twice in the last 8 years and I know Getty likes to clean house a bit every year. The last company I worked for was bought by Getty two years ago and there are only two people left from the original 30 or so. that went downtown. I guess they saw the others as a need for transition and once in place - thanks, but see ya.
 
kbg32 said:
Yes, I am thankful I have a paycheck. This couldn't come at worse time, as my wife and I are in contract for an apartment. Just feel pretty shaky about all this. I've been unemployed twice in the last 8 years and I know Getty likes to clean house a bit every year. The last company I worked for was bought by Getty two years ago and there are only two people left from the original 30 or so. that went downtown. I guess they saw the others as a need for transition and once in place - thanks, but see ya.
Click to expand...

Just make sure to keep the resume updated. And if you can, save as much as you can, just in case. I worked for what started as a small bank processing company for 11 years, until the new corporate entity cleaned house.

Thank god I lived rather cheaply when I was making the bucks, or I'd be looking for a decent box by the train station right about now. Good luck!
 
I feel for you as I'm in the same boat and then some, you know things are going to work out it's the uncertainty of how you are going to make that happen.
 
The problem with big business as I see it is that too many CEOs just want to get in, show at least on paper that they have made major improvements some way, like acquiring smaller businesses to grow the company, or firing employees to save money, whatever. Then grab their golden parachute and run. In fact, they may have actually run the company down and have used creative accounting to hide it.

Now when you have a lot of small companies and one goes down, those employees may be hurt a little, but there are plenty of other companies that can take up the slack, and probably even hire some if not all those employees. If you have one huge conglomerate that goes down, that cushion to the economy doesn't exist.

I am not an economist, and there are probably some economists who can show lots of arguments why I am wrong. But that is my take on it.

Hope all works out well for you.
 
Maybe this will be an opportunity to entrench yourself in Getty? I have a friend who has worked there for years and really likes it.
In the meantime Dilbert will be all the funnier...
Good luck!
 
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