The reason why I am on a houseboat right now is because at the beginning of last month Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) announced that they were going to purchase Zymogenetics, the company that I worked for. I was in the middle of buying a house at the time. Not knowing what would happen to my job or if I might relocate, I withdrew my offer. This left me looking for housing.
The idea of a houseboat first came to mind when I looked on a Seattle apartment rental site and saw a link to several available houseboats. The idea clicked. The rental period coincides with the purchase and transition period at the company. I thought that I would embrace this change with a sense of adventure.
What I'm finding is that during this month of transition and instability, I am ungrounded in every way.
We got an all company e-mail this morning informing us that BMS now effectively owns Zymogenetics. The atmosphere at work leading up to this acquisition has been difficult. There has been daily speculation about what BMS plans to do to the Seattle site, what will happen to our jobs, what will happen to our projects, and just plain what will happen. Unfortunately, today's announcement did not provide any more information about their plans.
All I know is that Zymogenetics is no more and even the calming nature of on-water living isn't washing away the sorrow of another Seattle biotech company gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment