When the first shoe dropped at Milwaukee-based Glenning Preservatives, back on August 1, 1990, the staff began the customary wait for the other one to follow suit.
Thirty years later, it still hasn’t.
The company recently marked this milestone anniversary with a low-key reception in the cafeteria: Free pop and cake to all staffers still in the office – with up to three slices for high achievers – and some 1990s karaoke. Those working from home got to watch the proceedings online.
“It’s not the kind of thing you go all-out celebrating,” says Malcolm Ragnerio, the company’s HR Director. “Waiting for the other shoe to drop for 30 years is a pretty nerve-wracking existence.”
According to the Beltram Institute, the average time it takes the other shoe to drop is 47 days – though sometimes it happens much sooner, like in 2003 at Boulder’s Sitmar-Collins, when the other shoe dropped so quickly it actually beat the first shoe to the ground.
“It’s hard to accomplish goals and projects when everyone is always looking up,” says Ragnerio. In addition, he says hiring qualified candidates for key positions is often difficult, since many potential employees research a company’s shoe status before applying.
Over the years, the company has spent nearly four million dollars on consultants. Between them they have predicted 17 different shoe drop dates, all of which have come and gone uneventfully.
“All we know is that someday that other shoe is going to drop,” says
