In $1989$ as a junior software developer landing my first role in IT with a company that was doing Research & Development for IBM was a dream come true.

The work at Stowe Computing in Sydney, Australia was challenging and cutting edge for the time with a lot of freedom to explore new ideas and concepts. I had the opportunity to work alongside some extraordinarily brilliant and resourceful colleagues as well as some of the most talented IBM personnel in a global industry. Everyone was engaged, challenged and motivated.

There were roughly $60$ employees in the division who were responsible for work on a range of projects such as conceptualizing, designing and implemented the Multi$-$Lingual Messaging System for the IBM mainframe Operating System MVS$-$ESA. Double$-$Byte character enablement of IBM Products and some of the work on Kanji$-$DOS amongst other projects. The IBM development process was onerous and thorough but we all enjoyed working hard and contributed whatever it took to ensure each project was a success.

The working conditions were above average with great coffee $($very important!$),$ tea and beverages. The coffee room was where we gathered to stay connected with colleagues and other projects, sharing ideas, information and experiences. There is a lot to be said for good coffee. Friday afternoons everyone stopped work early for drinks and pizza in the board room. Often there was an informal presentation or informational discussion that went with this, it was the perfect job!

Although the salary wasn$$t anything above average at Stowe, the opportunity for achievement, recognition and feedback was very high. With regular interactions and positive relationships with our clients and counterparts from all over the world.

Along came the day when an Insurance Company from South Australia brought out the parent business and set its sights on the most profitable division in the company. There was one individual who was made responsible to make as much profit as possible from our division. One of the first actions implemented was to cut back on tea, coffee and snacks, followed closely by Friday night drinks. The effect caused was to instantly demoralize and destabilize the work environment $.$ Questions started to be raised about job security as the company policies started to change and a pay freeze was instigated.

It didn't take very long before some very key people abandoned the company and along with them went a lot of support from our key clients. The new management$$s response to this was to assign staff to internal CICS$-$COBOL$/$DB$2$ work on their own insurance software and systems. This wasn't what people had signed up for and in a relatively short timeframe of less than two months, over half the workforce had left the division.