Yesterday was our last day of work. The morning was pretty intense, with Pete scrambling to get a few client deliverables out the door and Deb in a conference call to prepare others for a Monday meeting. On all counts, our firm has been fantastic about everything. The partners have been stepping in to reassure clients. Our co-workers, who are already carrying their own workloads, are taking on our projects mid-stream without complaint. Never has anybody had less than a supportive word for our decision. That said, even though the firm's been preparing for this since July, we still feel like we're leaving them in a lurch.
We were so focused on the minutiae of the day that we didn't even notice that the our co-workers had set up for a lunchtime sendoff party, complete with a catered spread. Our support staff decorated the conference room in a nautical theme, right down to the peppermint lifesavers. The prosecco and beer ensured that office productivity would be largely cast aside for the rest of the day.
There were many jokes about stalled projects that will be waiting for us in the same state as we left them when we return, always followed by a corrective, "if they return." There were lots of questions about the mechanics of cruising, about half of which we could answer with something more than book-learnin'. We honestly have no idea how this trip is going to end. Our firm made the Leaving Your Job part of it difficult in the best way possible.