Monday: The official grand opening announcement of the new Document Services fooled nobody. There's no convincing people that a Motel 6 is better than the 5 star hotel they are used to. I became a magnet for heart wrenching stories. My personal favorite is a secretary that whined to human resources, "How could you fire them just before the holidays?" and was told not to worry about others, just herself. She whined back, "it IS me I'm worried about!"
Tuesday: A rush TOA came in that I couldn’t get around to, and suggested sending it to the new Document Services. I peeked at it as it was being worked on, and it looked beautiful. I have been totally replaced in this world.
Wednesday: When I got in, G had looked at that TOA that the new Document Services did, and said, yeah, it looked beautiful, but showed me a print-out of the errors throughout the document. Ok, that made us feel better. This was followed shortly with an email requesting: “Please do not send the document to the new doc center. Please do it in-house. Thank you.” These poor people think they have a choice, and are going to have quite a rude awakening next week. Some people told me they complained to management about the new document services already.
Wednesday: When I got in, G had looked at that TOA that the new Document Services did, and said, yeah, it looked beautiful, but showed me a print-out of the errors throughout the document. Ok, that made us feel better. This was followed shortly with an email requesting: “Please do not send the document to the new doc center. Please do it in-house. Thank you.” These poor people think they have a choice, and are going to have quite a rude awakening next week. Some people told me they complained to management about the new document services already.
Thursday: I had only done 3 or 4 jobs this week (I lost count, because I didn't bother to log them in), and today work stopped coming in. I did jigsaw puzzles and games on line all day, which is pretty much what I had been doing all week. I applied for unemployment on-line, but after filling out two screens of information they wouldn't accept a future date of unemployment. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to file.
Friday 11/11/11:
Whoa! Not the day I expected! It started off with an exit interview. I walked into the conference room expecting stiffness and formality. As it turned out, the HR manager was on the phone with her sister, who was being taken to the hospital. When she got off the phone she shared with me the details of her family drama that had been taking place the past month, and had to pull herself together to do the interview. I was feeling a bit tender and raw this week myself, so it was easy for me to commiserate. It ended up being an unexpectedly lovely interview in which I signed a receipt for a copy of something inconsequential, was handed 3 checks, was told I could leave early, and given a hug.
I had hoped to run over to the convenient credit union across the street to deposit those checks, but never got the chance (dang!) and I never got a chance to apply for unemployment, either. I spent the day in email. Emails came to my personal inbox, or they were forwarded by our manager to the doc center box. There were last minute things I wanted to say to people that weren't here today (I didn't realize today was Veteran's Day until I got into the parking lot and saw so few cars).
After the exit interview I went to the mail room to make pre-addressed postage paid envelopes for me and G to return our signed severance agreements back in, where I ran into the HR manager doing the same thing. As she hand-wrote the firm's lengthy address on the labels I couldn't help but point out that the doc center could have made those labels for her, and she weakly appreciated the irony. Just as we got done with that, it was time for our goodbye lunch.
This is the first and only firm lunch I ever attended in my career, because whenever they had firm lunches doc center operators were always too busy to go to them. I would run in and make a plate that I would eat at my desk. But I just had no excuse today. The party was in our honor. None of us had to stay and "cover." It was great, I felt the love, even from some I didn't know before today. One even told me that she knew we in the doc center didn't know her that well, but she was affected by the news of our closure and wanted to say good bye.
So, today flew by. There were two trips to my car with last minute stuff like my keyboard. M and I walked around the other building to say goodbye and see his new office (he took another position at the firm). All day he said goodbye and then made everyone welcome him back. People came by to say goodbye (including two more who "just got the news").
And then I thought M and G and I would go downstairs for drinks, but I was not expecting our manager to join us, buy the drinks all around on the firm's dime, and open up to us for the first time in 10 years (although had only been our manager for the past couple of years). At any rate, she explained that she had to keep her distance in management, and that she had a "stand-offish" personality anyway. I think that's the word she used. And I thought it was just me. And G said that he thought it was just him. So, I opened up to her too, and told her I always wanted to be friends with her, and now we are. That was a really unexpected gift that I wasn't expecting today. She told me I should go to South Africa, and she also thought I was in my 50s. God bless her (she's 40 something).
And I drove home slightly drunk! That was new for me.
Goodbye to my beloved little corner:
