This is really more second impressions than a literal day 2. Probably no need to explain that but i did anyway.
I left the office on that last day at the regular time after spending the day trying to unobtrusively gather my personal belongings. Luckily I had removed some things when we were first bought out and more when McKesson-the new guys- closed a 100,000 sq ft building with lots of room for expansion after splitting up groups and moving groups all over. The most profitable part of that location was moved to Iowa and partly outside Chicago and almost immediately began to lose money and clients. Plans were made to consolidate 11 data centers down to 2, maybe 3. More plans were made to move the existing data center to a much smaller location. Lots of corporate decisions based on very little. But I digress. I wanted to act like it was a regular day and leave like it was a regular day and not have to go through a lot of goodbyes. I told a very few people and left. In so many ways it was a major relief to get away from there. I have yet to cry about losing a job that I really had liked and leaving people I genuinely care for. McKesson did give me a decent severance package. So that was that.
Except for the part about what in the world does one do with all that time?
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Day 1
Everybody looks forward to retiring. Life of leisure and all that stuff. I guess I'm weird-I would rather be working.
Maybe if I hadn't been retired by layoff I would like it better. But that's probably not it either. I was working towards the goal of retiring when I got laid off. I had been getting things in order for quite a while. I didn't like the company that had bought out my longterm employer so I was clearing the decks so I could stop working. I paid off everything that I could so that all I would have is the stuff nobody gets rid of-insurance, utilities-that kind of stuff. I even bought a house that had a patially finished apartment in the basement so that BEFORE I retired, i could finish it and find a tenant to help with expenses-those same can't get rid of them expenses. I thought I would have a year or so of salary plus social security to complete preparation. I closed on the second house in November 2009 and moved in in December. The end of February 2010, my position, along with 18 other positions, was "eliminated". Curiously all but 5 of those positions belonged to longtime, over 50 year old employees. That was when I realized I was officially retired. I was out of the total chaos of a very large company that ran in spite of itself. Somewhere over 32,000 employees made up of other bought out companies and communication seemed to be against company policy. That was a major relief to be out of the stress and confusion. That part was OK. No more commute. That was OK. No more feeling like i should decorate the walls of the office space with targets of varying heights so we would all know where to bang our heads on the wall to feel productive. I was retired!
Maybe if I hadn't been retired by layoff I would like it better. But that's probably not it either. I was working towards the goal of retiring when I got laid off. I had been getting things in order for quite a while. I didn't like the company that had bought out my longterm employer so I was clearing the decks so I could stop working. I paid off everything that I could so that all I would have is the stuff nobody gets rid of-insurance, utilities-that kind of stuff. I even bought a house that had a patially finished apartment in the basement so that BEFORE I retired, i could finish it and find a tenant to help with expenses-those same can't get rid of them expenses. I thought I would have a year or so of salary plus social security to complete preparation. I closed on the second house in November 2009 and moved in in December. The end of February 2010, my position, along with 18 other positions, was "eliminated". Curiously all but 5 of those positions belonged to longtime, over 50 year old employees. That was when I realized I was officially retired. I was out of the total chaos of a very large company that ran in spite of itself. Somewhere over 32,000 employees made up of other bought out companies and communication seemed to be against company policy. That was a major relief to be out of the stress and confusion. That part was OK. No more commute. That was OK. No more feeling like i should decorate the walls of the office space with targets of varying heights so we would all know where to bang our heads on the wall to feel productive. I was retired!
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