Down to One More Week!

Well, this is my last week at work.  Five more days to go. 

Last week was a strange one.  We had very little of our own work as everything was continuing to pass out to the out-sourcing company.  Most days I did very little of our own work, and none after Wednesday, spent a lot of time taking some soft skills classes on the company's intranet site, and on Thursday and Friday I started breaking down and cleaning the cubicles that used to house our team.  Our own last few remaining temps were gone after Tuesday, leaving eight of us, counting the Ops expert and our Manager.  Two of the temps stopped by to tell me before they left on Tuesday that they really appreciated how we treated our temps; that they'd never been treated like that before.  That reflected well on our team and also made me feel good personally, because I was the sponsor for the temps, taking them through orientation, monitoring their progress with production and quality, answering questions and continuing their training after they got onto the floor.  On Friday the company gave us a big celebration luncheon outside in a huge tent, big enough to house all of Doc. Management.  The caterer they used this time was excellent and so was the D.J.  I hadn't really been looking forward to it, but I really had fun. 

It was bittersweet, though, because I kept looking around and thinking, these were the people I was going to be happy working with for the next many years; this was the company that had my loyalty and my words of praise.  I could have stayed with the company and gone to another department, but I guess I'm just stubborn that way.  I'm not ready to give to another department, one perhaps without the dynamics that ours had, what I have given to OCR.  And besides, maybe I'll decide to do something entirely different now.  Anyway, their little celebration bash was really a lot of fun.  There was a lot of dancing, mini golf and an obstacle course (?)!  There were gifts for all of us, but the best gift they gave us was to take the rest of the day off and go home!  That was nice.

I'll tell a secret, though, and admit that a few tears were shed on my way home.  Now I find myself thinking about what I'm going to do tomorrow.  I need to clear out my K-drive at work and all my email files.  I wouldn't be surprised if they actually let us go ahead and leave on Wednesday and not come back for the last two days, except that that kind of decision would have to be approved by legal, so I don't know how fast that would happen.   We're planning on going out to eat after work on Friday, though, all of us -- not just the eight of us left, but several who have moved on to other departments who used to be part of our group, several who have already left for other jobs outside the company, and several of the temps that we'd had for a while and had gotten close to.   I think we're just going to go across the street to TGI Fridays; there was some talk of some drinking being done (but not by me!).   Even if they do let us go on Wednesday, we'll still have our last group-hoorah on Friday.  And I think most of us will stay in touch.

Bittersweet it may be, but once I've been home a day or two and when it finally hits me that I can have the whole summer off, and maybe longer, I'll be enjoying my freedom, believe me!  I'm already making plans with the kiddies.