I been saying goodbye for a while now. I am referring to goodbye from my work place.
It started when I started to look around for other options. I know there are other options out there, in theory, but to actually see the opportunities created a mind shift.
Why settle for what I have now when I can have more?
Then began a slow process of letting go. Letting go of responsibilities to others that were more eager to take it. Letting go of fights, that I know I was right in them, but were not worth the fight. Letting go about caring for the code under my fingers, since I already know my time there was limited.
This process of letting go fueled by every, less than perfect, incident that working has, only my mind was already spotting the bad over the good. So every argument, every email helped fuel my good bye.
Then came the offers. Over time the offers became better, mostly due to filtering bad offers earlier. The better the offer the more tempting it is and it is harder to say no to them.
And when the right offer came along, it took only one more incident to seal the deal.
Thus started the visible goodbye.
Formal notification, tasks to complete, knowledge to pass on. The informal notification to people I have been working with, taking personal stuff home, returning company stuff back etc… The closure meetings with the managers. A goodbye celebration, with speech that I had no idea what to say in. The formal goodbye checklist, with all its stops.
And still to the last hour, I am a part of the team. I check my mail and think what to respond for the company, for the team. I find how I can pass one more bit of info I neglected to mention earlier.
The one action that made the symbolic cut was: removing the company account from my phone. No more work emails, chat conversations. No more direct links.
And yet I felt the need to write this post.
Goodbye and thank you
Especially for the team. You have been important to me, and I know you will grow.
I am looking forward to meet you all in the future.