corporate manoeuvres in the dark

This week my company announced that it was merging. It wasn't a major surprise to me but does mean an interesting time ahead. Mergers and takeovers are part of the normal cycle of my industry and it can be a little hard to explain that normality to others. Yes they bring uncertainty but our business is always uncertain. The next drillhole might not bring good results, or the vein thickens unexpectedly. The commodity price can halve overnight (or double. Please double!). A cyclone can flood your mine. The price of fuel rises making your project uneconomic. You're ready to drill/mine but can't buy a excavator or find a drill rig. Someone quits and all of a sudden you're doing two peoples jobs and can't fly home because there's no-one else. All of these you control as best you can by planning to the last detail but the further you look ahead the greater the uncertainty. This week in Australia the share market crashed 5% because the Shanghai market dropped 9% (amid suspicions it was an orchestrated manoeuvre to test the influence of the Chinese economy). How do you predict that?!

A lot of this uncertainty stems from the fact that our industry is results-oriented: a successful drill programme can mean immediate and intense follow-up, poor results mean moving to a new area (which may be a new region or new country) and even selling/dropping the project. Plus the timeframe is a lot shorter - drill campaigns are measured in months, mines can be started and rehabbed in a year.

My solution has been to know/plan the next step workwise, then plan my life around that. Or get in early so they plan around me. That seems passive but in return for the uncertainty I've been able to take advantage of flexible hours and days in lieu and there have been other rewards both financial and career-wise. Planning next month, next year becomes something that you avoid until you have all the facts for fear of having to unravel it all and plan again. It's like the person loses their wallet/purse once and vows never to lose it again, for fear of having to cancel all the cards etc. etc. You can play what-if scenarios all you like but there are so many variables you end up exhausting yourself thinking them all through, depressing yourself or having unrealistic expectations and being crushed. Something always seems to come from left field anyway.

It sounds like no way to live a life, but then spare a thought for Bry having to deal with this. On my own all I did was never commit to a concert or footy game for fear of my roster changing. As long as I got a weekend off a lot of times it didn't matter which weekend although I have missed far too many "occasions" as well as a lot of great gigs (Faithless on a Tuesday night in Perth is burnt into my mind). My friends got used to an email a few days before I got back or a call the night I was back, and occasionally an sms saying "Onsite, had to fly back early, sorry" and having to share their lives with me through email. But when you involve someone else in your life and they have a career, holidays they want to go on, things they want to do or just to lead a normal life only planning the next step is tough to deal with. Of course its give and take on both sides - Im getting used to planning ahead more, and am lucky that this job hasn't thrown up too many surprises. I am also lucky that Bry has been so patient and understanding with this strange life I lead, and done her best to learn what factors mean we can plan, and which mean changes are afoot.

In this case it's relatively quiet - its a friendly merger so no stopping of funds or lengthy review periods post-acquisition. In contrast the first merger I went through involved both of those along with new rumours every week - after 2-3 months of thinking you might be unemployed or moved here, there and everywhere it gets really, really tiring! We're still exploring and my contract will be honoured, I don't know what I'll be doing after that but then I didn't know that before this week and I'm pretty sure I won't for a little while yet. You see we still have to plan the next step ;) there's options out there both with this company and others plus I'm sure there'll be more opportunities coming so all we can do is find out the details and then choose which is best.