Graph

Pop quiz, what is this and what can you tell from it? 

Answer – it is my company’s share price over the last 5 years! What do I take from it? You don’t need to be a qualified statistician like me to detect the noticeable downward trend. And when is the lowest point? Why, it’s today. Yes, our company reached a new 5-year low (in fact, a new 7-year low) in our share price today. A lot of people are not very happy about this, including me. It means all the company shares I’ve accumulated over the last 10+ years via the Employee Stock Purchase Plan are not worth nearly as much (and this is not a piddling amount – we are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, my nest egg and/or source of down payment should I finally ever buy a house). It means our company is valued a lot lower and more prone to being taken over. It increases the potential for layoffs. And it raises some serious questions about just how good our new CEO is. We actually had a company all-hands meetings this morning – and he barely touched on all the concerns about the low share price, instead touting our recent multi-billion buyout of an oncology company – in keeping with our recent history of vastly overpaying for something that we will never get our money back on. His optimism and sense of confidence seem increasingly forced and fake. I don’t think I’m alone in having some serious concerns about the future of our company – judging by the way that the new CEO has cleaned house via the number of people that had previously been here for a long time having voluntarily or involuntarily left, and been replaced by people predominantly from his previous company that don’t seem nearly as experienced or qualified, and losing our company’s identity as a result. All our previous success and expertise has been in virology, yet he seems to want to make us an oncology company much like his last place. In many ways, it’s quite ironic that we aren’t a successful virology company at a time when a virus is ravaging the world. Am I worried about my job and/or looking elsewhere for other job opportunities? No. Not yet anyway.