And then we came to the end

Monday 1st March

For twelve years I worked in an office, and in that time I met a whole lot of people that I dealt with on a daily basis. They gave me support, they educated me and I built some great friendships.

Alright, it's true that there were a large number of people that I couldn't stand and am not in the slightest part disappointed that I'll probably never see them again, but in any large group you'll have people that you don't like.

But now it's all but over. When I left I was in a group of half a dozen people to go. It was a little sad but we all had some sort of plans, mine being to be a writer, an objective I'm still struggling with.

On Friday just gone, I went back to the office. The next wave came through and over thirty of my old colleagues were leaving. That's more than half of the office. It was one massive party to congratulate and commiserate a huge number of people who again would probably never see each other again. There would be no reason to socialise with anybody else and no impetus to get in touch other than with one or two that you took the e-mail addresses of.

When I started there were 18 people in three teams doing completely separate jobs in slightly different areas. When I left those same jobs and more were being looked after by 6 people. From today onwards that work is being looked after by 2 people. I have no idea what the expected service level is supposed to be in that IT office is anymore, but I think it's actually going to be lower than they were hoping.

Each person left will have the choice of seats in the office, probably with three or four empty chairs for each surviving person. It'll be like the final episodes of the Apprentice or Survivor. There'll be no more gatherings, Christmas parties, summer train trips or anything frivolous. If they want to have an entire office meeting there'll be no need to take the lecture theatre anymore, they could gather everyone into one office, and not a big office at that.

It's sad. It's like the end of an era that I invested my person in for over a decade, some people two or three times that. Now there's nothing more than a limping shell and I cannot see it continuing in that form for much longer.

Don't get me wrong, the place will carry on for a while yet, I damn well hope so since I still have some very good friends working there, though not many any more. But it won't be the same, nothing ever is with that level of attrition.

I can't even blame the company for it's actions and no, I won't be naming people or the company for your benefit. The losses that they were suffering were too much and something needed to be done otherwise they might as well shut up shop and give up right then and there which would have helped nobody.

It just feels like a real ending and I don't know what will happen from that point on. All I know is that as of today, Monday the 1st of March there are a lot of people looking at their careers and hopefully in the same way as I did five months ago.

An opportunity.