Thursday, October 24, 2002

Leaving doo

People have started to realise I'm leaving. I am not senior enough to have it announced officially, nor do I consider myself popular enough to announce it myself - that is usually the domain of people in the post room or call centre or people who have been with the company for less than six weeks, for some reason. Nor have I been here long enough to deserve an official doo, nor short enough to sneak out with noone knowing. Inevitably people are asking about my leaving doo. I hate leaving doos, it's like cashing in your chips at the end of a night in the casino. You could invite half the organisation thinking they might be interested in seeing you off and then three turn up. These three people ultimately represent the net gain from your endeavours. Barman, one 'half empty' glass of lager please.

I've weighed up my options, and come to the conclusion that whilst I've probably worked with a good 40-50 people in the organisation. I'm likely to keep in touch with no more than two or three as friends, I may email another 5 or 6 with my new contact details. The rest I will largely forget, and they'll forget me. So my leaving doo is to be low key with people I want to spend time with, is that too much to ask? This strategy brings its own pitfalls, then people start asking why you're not hiring the Millenium Dome and inviting the whole world and asking if I have no friends. If you say you have got friends you sound desperate, if you say you haven't got friends, you sound desperate. You're not allowed to do low key things.

There are many complicated dynamics surrounding my leaving doo, not least that I moved jobs internally just three weeks ago, and I have been told categorically by my old department boss that there won't be another collection or card from them. I'm not looking for a present or even a card, but to categorically tell me that no more generousity (that's a £2 and sign a card type of generousity) will be given is a little disheartening. And, of course, though I really like my new Pod Buddies I've barely got to know my new department so I don't expect them to be interested.

This leaves the people I have aquainted with only from time to time, at arms length. The people who will come if they have nothing better to do. These people will be busy. So I see no point in disheartening myself with leaving doos, I don't think I can handle that kind of rejection.

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