Recruiting and Floor Buildout

During the past few days several people have approached us wondering why we=
are continuing to do college recruiting and continuing with the floor buil=
d out given the state of the company today. We appreciate people's concern=
s about adding people and spending money at a time when we ought to be redu=
cing unnecessary expenses. Let us begin by saying that we share these conc=
erns and are not hiring people or undertaking significant capital expenditu=
res without a great deal of thought. We would also encourage people to tal=
k to their manager or either of us if you don't understand why we are doing=
certain things. In short, we have decided to continue with the college re=
cruiting, although we have not yet decided how many, if any, we will hire. =
We have decided to delay the beginning of the floor build out for a couple=
of weeks.

Why Are We Continuing With College Recruiting?
During the last few years we have made tremendous progress establishing a p=
resence for Enron broadly and the Portland office specifically with leading=
schools in the northwest. This past year we finally reached critical mass=
and had tremendous success in our recruiting efforts. Although we are unc=
ertain about our hiring needs this year, we feel that it is in our best lon=
g term interest to continue having a presence with the schools in the north=
west. We have already made presentations and done initial screenings at mo=
st schools. We have identified the best people from each school and have a=
lready made plans for them to come to our office for two super Saturdays. =
The cost to us to finish this process is not large compared to the benefit =
that we gain from honoring our commitment to the schools and students as pa=
rticipants in their on-campus recruiting programs. We also realize that it=
is a hard year to be coming out of school looking for a job. It is our be=
lief that students would rather interview with us even if the possibilities=
of employment may be somewhat diminished. Finally, we would like to empha=
size the point that we have not yet committed to hiring anybody. We will i=
nterview people, identify the best candidates, and make hiring decisions ba=
sed on the needs of the office. Before extending offers we will consider t=
he potential impact that it could have on people in this office and Enron e=
mployees in other offices who have been redeployed. Stated another way, we=
don't intend to hire a bunch of new people if there are people within Enro=
n who could fill positions or if it would put the jobs of the people alread=
y here at risk. We may end up postponing hiring decisions until we are mor=
e certain about the state of affairs in the company.

How Will the Floor Move Play Out?
We have decided to postpone the floor build out for a few weeks. While we =
still think that it makes sense for the office, we have decided to pause fo=
r a couple of weeks before we start to spend significant amounts of money o=
n this. When talking to the build out team today it became clear that dela=
ying would accomplish several goals. First, it allows us to get final arch=
itectural plans in place and firm quotes from contractors so that we can mo=
re precisely peg down the costs before moving forward. Second, it gives th=
e build out team breathing room to iron out more of the details of the move=
. Finally, it buys us a little more time to decide whether or not it makes=
sense to do this project given the state of affairs of the company right n=
ow. While we still think that we are going to move forward with this proje=
ct, it seems like buying a couple of weeks of time is the right thing to do=
right now. In about two weeks we will reconvene with the build out team w=
ith firm budget numbers and make a decision to either move ahead, cancel, o=
r delay again. =20

As always, we will try to keep people updated on things as soon as new, rel=
iable information becomes available. We recognize that this is a very hard=
time for everyone. Please try to stay focused on the job at hand and keep=
up the success of this office.

Tim Belden and Chris Calger