I'm one of 3 non-equity holding directors on the board of a very small consultancy firm, owned by a much larger Plc.
Poor growth and profits have lead to our MD having multiple private talks with the plc CEOs over the last 6 months, excluding me and director 2. Something is happening amongst its many owned firms - some form of consolidation I think. MD has been drip feeding me with info about possible changes that I am absolutely not supposed to know, according to him. I was under the impression (owing to other activities which I have been brought in to assist on) that despite big changes, we will each still have a senior role within the plc and our brand will remain.
MD has been saying for weeks that everything will be announced any minute now, but it still hasn't. Then I heard that the plc depts will hear it in the next few days, followed by the other owned firms - EXCEPT us.
I pushed MD as to why we were excluded from the announcement. Suddenly he knows nothing and ducks my questions. I suggested that perhaps we are not included because we aren't being absorbed, we are going to be closed - he just said "who knows".
I'm getting a really bad feeling about this. Why would he lie or start being evasive suddenly unless the news has evolved into something worse? I have no answers and absolutely no one to ask, as I'm not supposed to know anything about it at all!
Motivation and morale is through the floor, but I can't just down tools until someone enlightens me as I still have paying clients to look after. I wish I knew what to do, rather than just sitting here stewing in the dark.