My farewell email

[andrewducker]

Context: It's traditional to send an email around the department when you leave the business, saying goodbye. There have been a lot of those recently, what with all of the redundancies, and I wasn't going to add to them with my own. Until the following came to me on the way home from nursery pickup last night, and I swore, because I knew I'd have to write it on my last day (which is today):

My dear developers, managers, testers, ops people, analysts.

Today, is my Seven thousand four hundredth day in the company.

Alas, twenty years and a month or three is far too short a time to work among such excellent and admirable people.

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

It's been a long, long time since I joined the company. Much longer than I originally intended, having only spent a year or two at my various jobs before coming here. But once I found somewhere comfortable, where the people were so nice, it was terribly hard to leave.

Now, however, time have stretched on, and in ways that aren't entirely comfortable. Things have come to feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.

I regret to announce — this is The End. I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell.

(I already have a collection of you on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Tumblr/Mastodon and other various social networks. And a few of you who Don't Do That Kind Of Thing on WhatsApp, Signal, or phone/email. If you'd like to keep in touch then I'm terribly easy to track down.)

All the best, as ever,

Andy

I've got a new job lined up, by the way. Starting in a couple of weeks, doing more IT things. I'm looking forward to it, nervously. Twenty years ia a long time between inductions. But hopefully they'll find a use for me, I'll get on with them, and I'll be there for a good long while too! (Although not 20 years - I'm *really* hoping to retire before I'm 70!)

Comments

[ljgeoff]

An excellent goodbye!

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[cmcmck]

Glad you've got something new to head into!

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[bearshorty]

At least you won't disappear dramatically into thin air!

Enjoy your break between jobs!

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[danieldwilliam]

I'm sure the induction will be cracking.

[andrewducker]

Fingers crossed I'm not an egg in this scenario!

[coth]

That is most excellent! What a lovely thing to be able to do.

Best wishes for your new job!

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[threemeninaboat]

Aw Congratulations on the new job and that's a lovely letter.

[andrewducker]

Thank you. I couldn't resist fitting in as many LOTR references as possible

[channelpenguin]

:-)

Glad you have something new.

Longest I ever stayed was 3 years (and that was recently). I might break my record for least time in a perm job with this one if they keep trating (other) people like they are.

ROFL. none of us will get to "retire". not like our parents did. it is a rigged game, with ever shifting goalposts, wait and see. But have fun nonetheless.

[andrewducker]

I dunno, I have a fair chunk of savings in my pension, and intend to make a lot more. Once the mortgage is paid off and the kids are out of school we should be okay.

[channelpenguin]

Markets can crash.

Pension funds can do unexpectedly badly.

All rules can change. Faster than we can adapt. That's the ultra kicker, I find.

I've been mortgage free most of my life. People almost fetishise that. But it's never never never been the biggest bill. It's all the rest. And they never go away. Never. And they never decrease ... No mortgage, it's nice, but it's not nearly as much a gamechanger as people seem to think.

And now? Look at how energy, food, everything prices have skyrocketed beyond anything we might have expected. Yeah some of us could borrow to set up solar, get ourselves "off grid" all that jazz. Takes a pile of cash.

Two separate lifespan calculators this week predicted I'll get to 101. HOW THE FUCK do you plan for that? Sigh.

I've given up long ago.

[simont]

I like it :-) Will most of your colleagues get it, do you think?

(Come to think of it, are all those quotes in the films, or will only fans of the book figure it out? I'm not going to go and rewatch them to figure it out...)

A colleague of mine some time ago went with the Red Dwarf option: "I've come to regard you all as ... people ... I ... met." I think he was a bit concerned that people might not even recognise it as Red Dwarf, so he was taken aback when I identified the episode.

[andrewducker]

The quotes are more movie than book, but some of them are both.

And you should totally go and rewatch them :-)

Red Dwarf is an awesome choice, but I agree that a lot of people won't recognise that at all!

[dewline]

Well done, as such things go!

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[mdlbear]

Best of luck! That's an excellent farewell email.

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[agoodwinsmith]

Did you get Gandalf and his fireworks?

And - off you go to Rivendell, then. :)

Congratulations!

[andrewducker]

I'm looking forward to a long retirement with the elves.

[greenwoodside]

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

Have fun walking a different road! Hope your last day went well. If only people in my organisation sent farewell emails like that.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, I hope so too!

[dreamaastrid]

Good luck on your next chapter in your career.

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[zippybeta]

Good luck in your new adventure!

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[snippy]

I'm glad things are working out!

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[azurelunatic]

What an excellent farewell.

(Me, I was glad that Virtual Hammer at the time had a product that started with the letter Z that I'd been somewhat involved in, so I could use it in my acrostic that gave my real email address.)

[andrewducker]

Very clever!

[anna_wing]

Congratulations on a superb farewell e-mail, and best wishes for your next job!

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[hairyears]

Superb valedictory email!

I envy you working in a place where such a farewell would be appreciated.

Good luck in your new job: and if anyone asks 'How was your induction?', please do not reply with "Jolly unfair on the duck" .

[andrewducker]

Hah!

And thank you!

[trailer_spot]

I don't remember that social media part in LotR, but admittedly it's been a while since I read it.

I've got a new job lined up, by the way. Starting in a couple of weeks, doing more IT things.
I was recently wondering about how your job search was going, so I'm very pleased to hear that. Congratulations!
It must be a very strange feeling to start at a new job after such a long time. I wish you a good start!

[andrewducker]

It's in one of the early revisions, but Christopher persuaded him to take it out again.

And yes, it's going to feel very odd. But hopefully just for a few days, and then it'll feel normal again!

[cellio]

Well done. And good luck with re-learning how to be the newbie. :-) (Though... I've been at my current company for almost 9 years, and just this week started going through my third "onboarding" without changing jobs! Acquisitions, whee. IT changes are such fun, especially when the new owners have to do 10k+ people all at once. Someday I will be able to access the new intranet...)

[andrewducker]

Oh yeah, that only happened to me once, although it would have happened a second time if I'd stayed through this time, as the people who didn't go were transferred to an outsourcing company.

[myka]

glad to hear you have a new job lined up - hope it goes great :-)

[anef]

That's delightful, and very appropriate!