Talent Wasteland

Several years ago, while driving the back roads of a barren Arizona desert, I stumbled upon a jumbo jet. There it sat, a Boeing 747, so close to the side of the road that its wing tip almost touched my car.

Convinced I was suffering from the dementia of dehydration, I pulled over, drank some water and closed my eyes, certain that when I opened them again, the mirage would be gone. But thirst and fatigue played no part in this vision. When I took a second look, I realized that the plane was one of twenty commercial jets warehoused in the dry desert terrain by the airlines that had once employed them.

Earlier this week, as I was browsing the web for interesting news, I stumbled across an article about this very same aircraft boneyard. According to the story, the number of planes sitting in this desert wasteland has recently grown from twenty to a little over 200.

“Protective fabric has been taped across the windows, engines and other apertures of most craft, giving them the appearance of being bound and blindfolded. From the few uncovered jets can be heard the faint clacking of turbine blades, spinning in the wind that whistles out of the mountains and across the plateau.”

Once reserved for planes past their prime and ready for demolition, many of the yard’s recent inhabitants are new or nearly new. The increase is a result of the economic slowdown where the airline industry has grounded 11% of its fleet, finding it less expensive to pay for storage than to keep these aircraft in service. And so here they sit, jumbo jets, once powerful in their ability to transport large populations of people across the country and around the world, waiting to be useful once more.

I remember an eerie sense of sadness and waste, standing on the side of that desert road. It’s the same sense I am experiencing today as I look out towards a different wasteland; one of warehoused talent, experience, education and wisdom created by recent company downsizing and layoffs. Bound, blindfolded, and “clacking” in the wind, hundreds of thousands of unemployed minds, some of the brightest and sharpest on the planet, are screaming for the chance to add value again.

This year, America has grounded 10% of its talent fleet. Given the challenges faced by our political and business leaders, I am forced to wonder, “Are we worrying too much about losing our homes and not enough about losing our minds?”