After the Axe (1981)

If there is one thing this epitomises about big business it's that loyalty counts for squat when your face no longer fits. That's what the fifteen year veteran EVP discovers when he loses out on the top job to a colleague turned rival who soon has him shown the door. His severance package includes a year's wage ($65,000) and access to some training services, and it's that process that we follow with ''Biff'' (James B. Douglas). Aside from this actor (and his family) everyone else here is real as he discovers that his skillset outside of his former organisation is both limited and dated. New employers know that this is a buyer's market, and so at the age of 44, he has to reassess his priorities for himself, wife and two teenage children as well as appreciate that he almost certainly is not going to walk into as lucrative a position elsewhere. It's a rat race and the increasing use of employment consultant to both hire and fire demonstrates clearly that his predicament is in no way unique. Dozens of similarly positioned executives are scrambling to get back onto the greasy pole, and futility of his quest also gently depicts the psychological effects on not just his confidence, but on his masculinity too. Initially determined to capitalise on fifteen years of success, he anticipates a slew of offers from colleagues elsewhere, but though there is plenty of talk there is very little by way of concrete. Eventually, he has to heed the professional advice he's been getting all along and lower his sights, but twill that get him back into work? I can't say that Douglas does much to have us rooting from his corner, indeed as an actor he brings very little to the role. What is interesting, though, is the exposure of an industry within an industry that makes a good living recycling and recalibrating people whilst showcasing the increasingly competitive nature of job hunting amongst management.