In the past I have told people how lucky I am that I get to work with my friends. I am not an emotional kind of guy, so this doesn't equate to any sort of HR concern; for me it is simply caring about people as individuals. Some of you are already laughing at me, thinking that that is a given, but I should point out that this does not come naturally to me, rather it is something I learned from a previous boss, and I think it is missing in a lot of cases. I guess the main difference is that when I am away from the office, and a story or something comes up with someone from work in it, even if they report to me, in the story they aren't my coworker, they are just a friend. And I like that.
I don't know if I am explaining this well. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because this week I had to say goodbye to 3 friends who are changing jobs all at once. They aren't leaving together, since they are going all different directions, but the timing was incredible. One at a time would be bad enough, but all at once... And they weren't just any random three people, we are talking years of experience working closely together from building cubicles to pulling all-nighters to get projects done, etc. They represent the last of the "old team" and now I am about the only one from the good ol' days.
Anyway, although I understand the situation, which I am cool with BTW, it has still been sad. This is a first for me, professionally speaking, but I was trying to put my finger on why it felt familiar, and then I realized what it was like.
It is like graduation. Most of your friends will still be around for a while, but after graduation day, the guaranteed day-in, day-out interactions will be gone. Sure, there is the stuff you do for fun, but now everyone is going to get jobs and sooner or later they are going to move away for work or school or whatever. So from a practical standpoint, graduation is when it is over.
Yeah, so I felt like blogging about it. And I just did. If you three are reading this, I wish you well, and I fully expect you all to keep in touch.
I thought I swore off of the journal-type postings, but apparently not so much. I will just have to blog more for the next couple of weeks to bury this one down in the history;)
That's a good way to describe it. Of course it is exciting to "move on to bigger and better things"... but that doesn't mean the change is easy or that it seems real yet. Guess we'll find reality out soon enough though seeing how there's just "One day more!" (Les Miserables)
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