John? He Never Worked Here.
When someone decides to leave our company there’s usually never any mention of the person's departure. One day you get an out of office message stating that John Smith no longer works at the company and you realize he still owes you five dollars.
If an announcement is made, it's done only a day or two before the person’s departure date, with a cryptic e-mail sendoff that never mentions what, precisely, the person is leaving to do. The Company doesn’t want us to get any ideas.
Today things have taken one more step towards total insanity. We are planning someone’s good-bye party two days after the person’s last day of work presumably to avoid the risk of infecting Cubeland with news of his leaving.
15 comments:
I worked for a place like that. It was so unnerving that I quit, too... I couldn't tell if other people were being fired or laid off, one by one, or quitting on their own volition. Now I work for a place where even if you get fired they give you a severence package and throw you a going away party, and people who leave willingly send mushy good-bye emails with their new company info. It's... different.
It's strange when these things happen out of the blue wihtout exlpanation - like they were abducted or something and are never to return
John? He never worked here... it's like something from the movie Wing Commander.... only he's not dead. ;)
Maybe the Company doesn't think it's really pertinent information or relevant to announce someone's departure? If it's a firing it's not necessarily happy news so hwy bring everyone down? If the person is quitting then the Company has no responsibility to notify anyone either.
Also why doesn't the person leaving feel inclined to inform anyone of their impending departure before they actually leave? Did they sign some confidentiality agreement with the Company preventing them from speaking out?
Otherwise...I think worrying about it is a bit paranoid. People come and go for various reasons. If they don't want to tell anyone, that's their choice. End of story.
Very 1984. I like it...
My boss sat me down to tell me about the last person leaving our company because she was my friend and it was all very "hush..hush" on everyone's part.
But what killed me was when he said "You can still talk to her, but don't do it on company time."
Huh??? What the heck was that all about?? So of course I called her on my lunch hour, because that's MY time, according the my employment contract, at least. :)
My office is exactly the same way...only without the parties. Wow. That sucks :-(
I'm coming from the other side, trying to sneak off without too many people the wiser.
A bit strange when people suddenly disappear, though, I agree.
thats so wierd.
the place i work for is the opposite. they throw a going away party and give presents, even when its someone who everyone detests and who utterly deserves to get the boot! And usually everyone is told in an all-staff email within nano-seconds of the person handing in thier notice. immediately preceded by a collective cheer!
I always find it really irritating when I get one of those fakely sappy emails from people who are leaving , most of whom I never really knew that well, telling me how great it was to work with me, and giving me their new contact info, which of course, I never use. But I'm kind of a bitch like that...
Maybe you work for a serial killer?
most of these comments suck ass and discuss the things you write about too literally. snore.
on another note, your blog is awesome. just found it and red through the archives. very funny, i laughed out loud a few times in my cubicle, and was reminded of the humorous aspects of my un-glamorous life.
A man disappeared with no explanation and all you thought of was he owed you five dollars.
Phew. I read anonymous' comment and thought, "Well, I may be turning into a cynical perimenopausal feminazi, but at least I'm not a pedantic ass."
We referred to these at my old job as future endeavors e-mails because, regardless of the circumstances, an employee's departure would always be directly followed with a form email. It went something like this:
Scott Billinger is no longer an employee of The Daily News. We wish him well on all of his future endeavors.
We'd say things like "you better get Mr. Bossman a nice card for his birthday or we'll be getting a future endeavors email about you."
I was strongly discouraged from telling anyone outside of my immediate cube farm that I was leaving until the afternoon of my last day - and I understand the implications of not doing things that are strongly encouraged to the reference I will be getting in the future.
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