It’s been one heck of a tough week.
My wonderful mother passed away unexpectedly due to complications from chemotherapy. She was just 62; taken too soon. I’ve been holed up with my dad for days. Someday I’ll write a completely off-topic tribute to Mom here, after the healing process has done its work. Meanwhile, to those hundreds of people who reached out to me via Twitter, Facebook and email: Thank you! – it helped.
More bad news: This week we made the difficult decision to conduct a layoff of ten percent of our account staff. While we are in good company in that many other PR agencies have had layoffs in recent weeks, it’s still a tough decision. These are good people. Not only were they our peers and friends, they were PR rock stars — we valued their contributions and are very sorry to see them go. (Note to our competitors: If you can, you should scoop them all up. I would, if I were you.)
It’s a sign of the times and despite the fact that we feel very confident about the future, we aren’t immune from the nation’s economic woes. We’ll be stronger as a result of taking these preemptive moves, to support the 90+ rockstars who remain.
That’s all I can muster for now. I hope to be pontificating here again soon. Meanwhile, thanks for your patience. I am sure 2009 has brighter things in store…