On Transition
(warning: this is going to be a whiny kinda post)
So last Friday was the last day for me in the office of a job I've had for five and a half years. I've been in the non-profit world my entire career, and I did civil rights advocacy. On Tuesday, I start at a law firm. It's going to be quite a change in so many ways, and I'm more anxious than excited right now. I know it's an opportunity for me to learn, and I know I'll learn. Frankly, I know I'll do quite well, so that doesn't stress me out. I'm most concerned with having to wear real clothes every day and no longer being the boss. I'm used to handling everything from input, throughput to output of the process. In my new job, I'll be a grunt with no control or concept of the big picture. That is going to be an adjustment. I hope I handle it with grace. That's one of my greatest worries. However, the safety valve is that I know that I will only have this job for 10 weeks, so even if I abhor it, I'll be fine because it's temporary.
The real transition for me is that after more than 5 and a half years, not a single person with whom I work on an almost daily basis -- including those in the same office as mine -- not a single one of them stopped by and wished me good luck or said good-bye. No one.
And it made me sad.
Not just because I feel like no one valued my presence or my work (although that is certainly part of it) but also because whenever someone has left our group, we've always, at the very least, taken them out to lunch or held a reception/roast to bid them farewell. I've organized more than a few of these myself and always contributed. This is a tradition among my colleagues. And what really hurts is that they had a reception/roast to honor my predecessor who was in the job fewer years than I was. For me? No one even stopped by to say good-bye.
I know I'm whining. I know I have no right to expect anything.
But damn. It really sucks that no one cared enough to even say "thanks and good luck."
So last Friday was the last day for me in the office of a job I've had for five and a half years. I've been in the non-profit world my entire career, and I did civil rights advocacy. On Tuesday, I start at a law firm. It's going to be quite a change in so many ways, and I'm more anxious than excited right now. I know it's an opportunity for me to learn, and I know I'll learn. Frankly, I know I'll do quite well, so that doesn't stress me out. I'm most concerned with having to wear real clothes every day and no longer being the boss. I'm used to handling everything from input, throughput to output of the process. In my new job, I'll be a grunt with no control or concept of the big picture. That is going to be an adjustment. I hope I handle it with grace. That's one of my greatest worries. However, the safety valve is that I know that I will only have this job for 10 weeks, so even if I abhor it, I'll be fine because it's temporary.
The real transition for me is that after more than 5 and a half years, not a single person with whom I work on an almost daily basis -- including those in the same office as mine -- not a single one of them stopped by and wished me good luck or said good-bye. No one.
And it made me sad.
Not just because I feel like no one valued my presence or my work (although that is certainly part of it) but also because whenever someone has left our group, we've always, at the very least, taken them out to lunch or held a reception/roast to bid them farewell. I've organized more than a few of these myself and always contributed. This is a tradition among my colleagues. And what really hurts is that they had a reception/roast to honor my predecessor who was in the job fewer years than I was. For me? No one even stopped by to say good-bye.
I know I'm whining. I know I have no right to expect anything.
But damn. It really sucks that no one cared enough to even say "thanks and good luck."
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