Mark Tronson was interested in the "human factor" from this program. The interviewer was not only focusing on the company and its major players, but also on the many long term employees, some of whom had been with Fletcher Jones for 30 years or more.
These people who had worked for the company all those years could hardly grasp the significance of what was happening around them, as more and more of their work colleagues were given notice.
Although it was incremental, one this month, two or three a couple of months later, four or five a month after that, several of the supervisors thought this would never happen to them, and as sure as night follows day, it did.
The "human drama" of such lay-offs of trusted long term employees who saw the company as much more than a way to earn a living, but rather as a family, and they saw themselves as vital members of that family. It was tantamount to sacrilege to tell a family member they should close the front door when they leave and never come back.
This is the "all too typical" response of such trusted employees in any number of companies in Australia who have seen their their doors closed. Every so often on the news, we view this occurring with the interviewer hearing over and over these same sentiments.
The company can send in any number of counsellors, they can set up help-desks, they can give out the cheques, but being "kicked-out: of the family is beyond any of these things. It's a bit like being "kicked-out-of-home" and having to live on the street.
Trust has been torn asunder from their inner being, in that they saw themselves as a part of the structure, a structure not made with iron and steel, or machines and presses. Rather it was the people within the family that had a heart which pumped the elixir of life into their work-community veins.
They saw each other's children go through their schooling, some onto university, others into the work force, then they witnessed the joys of significant dates like their 21st birthdays, engagements, weddings and grand-children.
What is taken away is not income, nor is it a work place, it is not even a superannuation pit stop. What was taken away was their soul, which was part of a life much larger than themselves, it was their "community family" where they spent a good portion of their lives.
There is a spiritual dimension to this, its the glue of the soul, the inner place where words cannot be articulated.
This was the Fletcher Jones story and the story of many other Australian companies since then. Decisions out of their control affects every area of life, not just an economic statistic in an accountants file or a board room profit and loss sheet.
Moreover it's just not companies, it applies equally to those small business operations where a family has put everything they had into their business only to find it fell over. The heartache cannot be measured. The long and longer hours, the even longer hours, and still it folded.
Christians have been and continue to be in the forefront of such community assistances and it is their mission to tend to the wounded soul as they work through their grief and loss of a family that has rejected them.
Romans 12 verse 15 comes to mind where we rejoice with those who rejoice and we weep with those that weep.
