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My company, company A, is being sold.

It has been bought by a major player in the field, company B, and everybody was quite happy with it.

However, due to antitrust concerns, the European Commission requires some parts of A to be divided to a third party.
It turns out, this third party, company C, is a hedge fund.

My department is being split. Out of the twenty-ish people there, 3 (my colleague, me and our line manager) will go to B as planned. All the others will go to C.

My colleagues, overall, are not happy. They are putting together a protest email which will be sent to the top brass (which, by the way, will almost all go to B), complaining about the unfairness of the situation, and expect me to join the protest.

My dilemma is:

• While I believe the situation is unfortunate, on a very selfish level, it suits me well, therefore, I don't want to send that protest mail.


• All my colleagues, including the other two going to B will send the mail.

Finally the question:
How can I not send the mail, and yet keep working in harmony during the acquisition process which could take month?

Just tell them you don't want to burn bridges before you even get there.

I can't tell you how your co-workers will react, but I feel that this response is reasonable.

Tell them you don't want to compromise your standing with the new company in the event they take offense to this type of email and that you would rather keep your head down. If you must, tell them you fully support them in their endeavor, but you will not be partaking.

My addition to other answers is an alternative delivery.

I'd be totally straight with them and say something along the lines of I'm not interested in wasting time and making waves on a protest that will not change anything.

This is in my own best interests and potentially theirs as well if they get over their pique and think about what they're doing before they potentially get themselves some negative attention from higher up.

I wouldn't try and talk them out of it, just indicate I'm not getting involved.

Just do nothing.

You're not required to send the letter, and you shouldn't be forced to send a letter you don't want to - be it a protest letter, or any other kind.

Neither are you required to express that you're not going to do this.

So just don't do or say anything, and let it go. If anyone notices and ask, you can be sincere and tell them why you're not doing it, or you could just evade the question with some excuse. Once again, they shouldn't force you to explain why you don't want to be involved in this situation.

I agree with you that it's a selfish attitude to take, so I don't think that stating out loud that you're being selfish is the best way to keep a good relationship with your peers for the next month - it will probably burn some bridges whenever they find out. So just ignore the situation, fly low, and hope no one notices.

If they (try to) force you to send the letter, you can state that as an issue that prevents you from being involved - you don't want to be forced into empathizing with your colleagues. It may be an excuse, or it may be true - but I wouldn't care about coming up with false excuses to people who's forcing me to do something I don't want, even if it's a good thing to do.

How can I not send the mail, and yet keep working in harmony during the acquisition process which could take month?

Just tell them that you don't think it will do any good.

• Point out that the deck on this one is already stacked
  
  the exec's are already going where they want to go.




• There are causes which are worth dying for, but
  
  this is more of a live to fight another day situation.

Hopefully this helps in France, (which you've tagged) I've never been/worked there.

All my colleagues, including the other two going to B will send the mail.

Are each of the colleagues sending it from their own email accounts? Or will it be a joint letter signed by each person?

How can I not send the mail, and yet keep working in harmony during the acquisition process which could take month?

Could you just pretend you sent the email? How do you know for certain the 2 colleagues coming with you aren't doing the same?