Friday, August 17, 2007

Endings

It is 5:01 p.m., and therefore, I am no longer employed by my first-ever full time employer. I have a new job now. I am still at my desk, because there is a farewell happy hour scheduled to begin in 15 minutes. The walls are bare, the bulletin board is empty, and everything I am leaving behind is neatly organized. My "how to do my job" manual is complete, all my important files have been saved on the public drive for others to access, and I just turned in my key. All of my personal effects are neatly arranged in a box next to me, ready to be hauled home on the Metro. My final timesheet has been completed and signed. Every single item on my to-do list has been crossed off, and when my boss asked what miscellaneous tasks needed to be completed once I left, I could not think of a single one. I sent out a thank you and keep in touch email to everyone I've worked with here over the past 15 months, and received many goodbye emails in response. My work email account is about to be deleted.

I am no longer a fresh college grad, in her first grown up job. And I am so excited about my new job.

Feels like change.

6 comments:

  1. Congrats! It sounds like you are leaving in style, and your (former) employers are going to really appreciate that.

    I am impressed! I didn't leave on my last day at the DC-job until 9:30 p.m. that night...

    Congrats, again!

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  2. I loved the rite-of-passage that is quitting your first post-college job.

    Congratulations on making your next step.

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  3. Artemisia--what was your DC job? And was it just because it was your last day that you didn't leave until so late, or was that par for the course? If so, I can totally understand why you ditched DC to move west.

    Penny--I know, it really is such a rite of passage, and one of those ones that nobody ever mentions when they're talking about post-college life.

    Thank you guys for the congrats!

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  4. I worked for a non-profit in access to higher ed. I ran the publications department. (That is code for, I moved up to "Director," but they never replace me as "Manager" or "Asst. Director." So - I had a fancy-smancy title, did all the work of the title, but didn't supervise a soul. Lame.

    Mom and Pop started the non-profit and are still there as Pres. and VP. The culture there was hideous.

    It didn't matter if you were the most gloriously efficient human being and accomplished more in eight hours than most get done in 16. If you left at 5:00 p.m. -- hell, 6:30 p.m. -- you were perceived my Mom and Pop as not working hard enough. You must not be dedicated to the fight!

    And your salary? Raises? They completely hinged on what impression the Pres. and VP had of you. Evaluations were a JOKE. If they thought you were lazy, tough shit. If you kissed their ass and looked stressed out, you made a shitload of money.

    It smacked of illegal workforce practices. But a lawsuit would bring the organization down, and everyone employed there, in fact, did care a great deal about the cause.

    The positive side of being totally and completely overworked and thrown into projects that I had no business running, I have awesome work experience to draw from. I didn't appreciate that for at least two years, though.

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  5. OH, and P.S. - How is the new job going?!

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  6. Oh my god, that job sounds heinous. I am lucky that in both of my jobs so far, I have had supervisors who asked me what I was still doing in the office if I was there ten minutes past five (old office) or six (new job).

    I'm glad you managed to find ways to benefit from the negative experience, though.

    As for how my new job is going--I just wrote a massive post all about it, so you can get the details there. But in short, so far it's great.

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