The first part of my two-part departure is done. Today was my last day as the production manager at work...at least till late next year sometime. Now I have nine days off, and when I go back to work on January 2, I'll be in a different room in the office and will be working on the big project I've been assigned to. On January 23 or 24, I'll say "so long for now" to my colleagues in Ottawa, and on the 25th, I'll be flying to Halifax to begin the next big adventure of my life. (That reminds me - I better get someone to make my flight arrangements!)
Today was a nice day for part one to happen. Christmas is in two days, so we had a big potluck for lunch at work today. There was so much food! I limited myself to one plate of various stuff and didn't have any desserts. I've found I always feel a little yucky after those potlucks. Probably a combination of too much food and too many different kinds of it all in one sitting. So I felt pretty good through the rest of the afternoon, even though everyone else was complaining of being either sleepy or over-full, or both.
There are lots of things going on at work lately. Several people leaving and new people coming on board to replace them. Some other people are being shuffled around to cover open positions. Plus there's me going into a new venture for a while, so the regional director had his plate full making the speeches about how great everyone was and how much we'll miss them. Everyone was smiling and clapping and there were even a few tears shed when the one gal read a speech she'd written. It was nice.
I put my hand up to tell everyone about the new guy we're bringing in for a few months, and then made the mistake of opening my remarks with the comment that I was really going to miss my staff. Blast...bad move. I almost lost it. LOL. Finally managed to collect myself enough to tell everyone about our new dude and assure them that they'd find him very capable and pleasant.
Also took a few minutes after getting back to my desk to write a rather sentimental "goodbye" note to my staff telling them I really was going to miss them, and that they're the best production team in the company. They really are. I don't need to be a manager...they don't need managing. Anyway, I'll still be around the office for a few weeks. I just won't be their boss. The gal who's taking over from me is very good. She's going to go through hell this year. I hope everyone treats her...and my staff...well. Seems like whenever I go away, all hell breaks loose. And it's not like I sit there and control anything, or make things happen one way or the other. Makes a difference when the boss is around, I guess - regardless who the boss is.
So, now all I have to do before I can begin "The Work" is clean out my old office and move everything downstairs, or bring it home to be packed. I'm supposed to have next week off, but I'll go in one day and spend a few hours moving stuff downstairs. I'll have to do the same with my computer. Get rid of my personal addresses, freelance files, etc - I'll burn them to a CD, I guess. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my Mac address book into the PC downstairs, and then back into the Mac in Halifax. If not, I'll be building a new address book three times over the next year. Blah. Oh well, thems the breaks. It'll be worth it.
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