Dear Stephen,
My company was recently acquired by private equity after being family-owned for many years. The family is still involved, but the way the company operates has already changed. We have a new CEO from outside the industry, several new executives, and constant assurances that everything is going to be fine. I’m a top-producing salesperson in the floorcovering industry
(carpeting). My customers are loyal, my numbers are strong, and management repeatedly tells me my position is safe. Still, several longtime employees have already left, and those of us who remain are quietly waiting for the other shoe to drop. A close friend works for a contract furniture manufacturer that was acquired by a competitor. Most of the salespeople are still in place, so customers see very little difference, but people in overlapping corporate departments are slowly being eliminated. Watching that happen has made me question whether I’m being smart to stay calm or naive to believe the reassurances.
I do not have a non-compete, and I’ve already been approached about other opportunities, but I’ve declined to interview because I like my job and do not want fear to push me into an unnecessary move. When a company is acquired—whether by private equity or by a competitor—should employees start interviewing even when management insists their jobs are secure?
Waiting for the Other Shoe to Hit the Carpet
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Dear Shoe Drop,
Yes, you should start interviewing. I’m not saying you should quit and clean out your desk. Continue selling, producing, and collecting every commission dollar you earn, but the moment your company changes hands, open your eyes. Once your company is sold, you are no longer merely an employee —you are now a line item. Your company was not purchased so everything could remain exactly the same. Private-equity firms do not invest millions of dollars because they admire the existing organizational chart, and competitors do not acquire companies because they desperately want two finance departments, two marketing departments, and two layers of senior management. Both buyers will talk about growth, investment, opportunity, and preserving the culture. Then they will begin looking for “efficiencies,” a wonderful corporate word that sounds much nicer than telling someone their job is being eliminated.
Of course management says your job is safe. Nobody announces layoffs while the new executives are still learning where the bathrooms are. They need everyone calm, productive, and smiling while they determine what they bought, whom they need, and how much money they can save. Any leader who promises that nothing will change after a company is sold is either uninformed or insulting the intelligence of the employees. Good leadership is not pretending to know what you cannot possibly know. Reassurance without facts is not leadership; it is anesthesia. You mentioned that your new CEO came from outside the industry. You mean like MillerKnoll’s former CEO Andi Owen, who came to Herman Miller after a long career at Gap and later became famous for telling employees worried about their bonuses to “leave pity city”? That is a pity. Outsiders can succeed in our industry, but they often arrive with consultants, spreadsheets, and a desire to make changes before they understand why the company worked in the first place. Sometimes they transform the business. Sometimes they rearrange the furniture and call it transformation.
The research backs up what every headhunter already knows: after a private-equity takeover, more employees leave, more lose their jobs, and many earn less afterward. Not everyone gets fired, but everyone becomes a number that someone new is studying on a spreadsheet. Losing your job is not always a career disaster; being surprised and completely unprepared when it happens is. A competitor buying your company should set off the same alarm. The reductions usually begin behind the scenes because customers do not immediately notice when finance, human resources, marketing, product development, or operations are combined. The brands remain in the showroom, the salespeople keep smiling, and the press release promises that two wonderful cultures are coming together. Meanwhile, people at headquarters are quietly discovering that the combined company does not need two of everything. If your company is the one being acquired, assume the buyer’s systems, executives, and employees have home-field advantage until you see convincing evidence otherwise.
Salespeople often believe they are protected because they control customer relationships, and initially they may be right. Revenue is the last thing a new owner wants to disrupt, so the sales force is usually changed more slowly. Then territories begin to overlap, accounts are reassigned, compensation plans are standardized, and someone decides that two people covering the same market are one person too many. The acquiring company did not buy your company because it fell in love with you. It bought the brand, the products, the customers, and the revenue. You came with the furniture. That is why you should begin looking now, while you are employed, successful, and able to be selective. Update your resume, make certain your LinkedIn profile is accurate, and return calls about interesting opportunities. Look at competitors, but also consider adjacent industries such as contract furniture, lighting, textiles, architectural products, tile and stone, kitchen and bath, healthcare interiors, and residential furnishings. You may sell floorcovering, but your real value is your ability to build relationships and produce revenue. Those skills travel.
At The Viscusi Group, in our Midtown Manhattan office, we hear these stories every day—but usually after someone has lost their job. People tell us they saw the new executives arriving, longtime employees leaving, and responsibilities quietly shifting. They admit that recruiters called them months earlier, but they refused to interview because their boss promised they were safe. Then they call us unemployed and ask whether the opportunity they rejected is still available. Usually, it is not. The saddest sentence a headhunter hears is not, “I lost my job.” It is, “I saw it coming, but I never thought it would happen to me.”
Everyone thinks the layoffs are meant for someone else until someone else is sitting at their desk.
Interviewing is not disloyal. Your company has already participated in a transaction in which protecting your career was not the deciding factor. You owe your employer excellent work while you are being paid, but you do not owe the new owners blind faith. Interviewing may confirm that your current position remains the best one available. It may also lead you to a better company, a better boss, more money, or greater opportunity. Either way, you will be making an informed decision instead of waiting for strangers with a spreadsheet to make it for you. There is no forever job in 2026. Being acquired does not mean you are definitely about to be fired, but it does mean you have officially lost the right to be shocked if it happens. Keep performing, keep smiling, and start interviewing while you still have the luxury of saying no. Do not wait for the other shoe to drop. Put both shoes on and walk into an interview.
Stephen
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Stephen Viscusi is a headhunter, workplace expert, television personality, and bestselling author of two books,
On the Job and Bulletproof Your Job. He is the CEO of The Viscusi Group, global executive recruiters headquartered in New York City.