Patti
So my former boss resigned recently and much like since this process began I couldn’t wrap my head around it. How would any of us respond to being demoted due to ‘restructuring’? If you did something wrong or something catastrophic occurred maybe I can understand but all that happened to her was her boss quit.
She’s not the first manager of mine to leave though. However the circumstances of Neil’s departure, becoming a doctor, were cause for celebration. This just stinks.
It’s not like I worry about her future or anything, she’d kick ass wherever she chooses to go, if anywhere. I mean that literally as well as figuratively, she’d succeed and take people down, physically. Only when appropriate of course.
No, what hurts is the heartbreaking disrespect. She faithfully served our organization for 24 years. That’s 24 years of hard work and incredible sacrifice. If she ever wrote her memoirs it’d be quite the page-turner. My 11 years and related sacrifices don’t begin to compare. You think my life revolves around fair? You should meet her children, the stories of their births cannot be told without mentioning the fair.
She got it. The history, the meaning. Why we’re there and what drives us to do what no sane or rational person would do.
And now she’s gone.
She touched my life. I wouldn’t have the job that I do now if not for her.
Neil may have been my first manager but Patti and I really connected, even after I left the department. She was always supportive but honest and realistic. She seemed to care more about my future than her own. And never in a condescending or patronizing way. We spoke as equals despite a keen awareness of our respective strengths and weaknesses. Although she always got the last word of course. There was a professional respect, loyalty, and friendship.
We are all, each of us, diminished by her departure and the truly sad part is how some people don’t know it, and how unnecessary it is.
The ironic thing is her life will likely be much easier now.
To make the kind of sacrifices you need to at our organization for nearly a quarter of a century only to have them turn their back on you, it’s mind boggling.
Now I’m the first to stand up and say seniority isn’t everything, but it isn’t nothing either. And she did well and succeeded. You can’t discount her contributions, although her humility often drove her to do so.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to walk away from all that. When I faced a problem that left my future in doubt at the 7 year mark I felt my brain splitting at the prospect. I’m more mature now so it’s not as emotionally upsetting a concept at 11 years but it’s still too much to wrap your head around.
I remember when Neil would call every fair, even 3 years after he left. I asked him what it was like. The answer was always the same “Wrong. It’s weird, the free time is nice, but mostly it just feels wrong“.
Poor Neil. Poor Patti.
They both had a job I’ve wanted for 11 years and yet I feel sympathy for them. Talk about wrong.
She mentioned how this might be an opportunity for me. I don’t know. I know it’s emotion not logic or rational ambition talking when I say I don’t want to advance like this. There is a logical component to it though: if they sold her out what’s to prevent them from doing the same to me?
It would have actually been easier if I had become her boss because at least she would still be there. I rarely let ‘directives’ stand in the way of what’s right. Not that such an arrangement would have been right either.
I could go on forever about the injustice of it all.
When things began down this road I told Patti to be selfish. The work-to-money ratio wasn’t a bad deal. Enjoy the free time. The latter half of that suggestion still stands. No one wanted it to end like this but the rest is well deserved. I hope she enjoys the free time and lower stress levels.
It won’t be easy though. Patti and I are two of a kind I think; we need to be useful. If we’re not pushing ourselves, our limits and boundaries, we don’t feel like we’re doing our part. The fair switch may not have an off position. It all boils down to helping people and one way or another she’ll find a way to do that. She can’t not. It’s in our nature.
