Welcome to Navigating Corporate
Building a Community of Cubicle Warriors
When I retired in March of 2024, I thought I was done. But now, as I sit here watching the economic fallout unfold, I know I have more work to do. As I write this, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. And another 10% (now 20% total) on all Chinese imports. The DOW has dropped over 1500 points in the last week. And the Atlanta Federal Reserve projects our GDP for the first quarter dropping from close to a 3% growth to a 2.8% contraction.
The full impact of these changes, combined with the purge of federal employees and programs, remains to be seen—but it will be enormous.
I started this newsletter because I know how to help people working in cubicles. Not only do I have (cough, cough) 40-plus years working in corporate, but I maintained a site called Cube Rules, a site for helping people working in cubicles, for years. When I retired, I thought I was done so I deleted the site and the domain name. Which, of course, got snatched up. Hence, Navigating Corporate.
People working in cubicles are going to need a lot of help. Life is going to be harder going forward. Companies are going to cut back because of tariffs, uncertainty in policies from the current Administration, and consumers cutting back because of inflation.
Navigating corporate life will become more difficult. Fewer remote jobs. Fewer new hires, More budget cuts. More scrutinizing spending, including spending for promotions and general raises. More layoffs. More corporate restructures. More persistent, low-level stress.
The billionares will do fine. The rest of us? Not so much.
I want to help build a Community of Cubicle Warriors - people who know how to navigate corporate the best they can. They will proactively work their careers to be in the best situations possible. As always, some will be in the wrong place at the wrong time (see: Federal Government employees promoted because of their good work, thus being on probation in the new role, and then getting purged by DOGE…).
So we’ll talk about handling layoffs, building resumes, doing job interviews, writing performance reviews, whether it makes sense to stay where you are or leave your company - all things about navigating corporate life.
Come join me in becoming a Cubicle Warrior.