Went back to See my old office buddies today ! (acquaintance, state, retired)
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Its been a year since I retired from my job at a state agency here and went back to my office to see who was still there and how things were going.
I think I made the right decision by leaving a year ago. First, I got a bad feeling just walking in the door. Kinda like deja vu. Next I saw that 3 people had left, out of a team of 12, and the office layout appeared exactly the same as before. No changes. One of my closest friends there said she was "miserable" and wanted to quit. The office was freezing and I needed a sweater. Everyone asked if I missed them. ( No.)
Did you go back after you retired to see if you missed it?
I went back 5 years later and except for 4 or 5 people that I knew everybody else was a stranger. The company was slowly failing and numerous people had been layed-off or fired. All the new people there were from other branches of the business.
I retired at the perfect time, the company was making good money and the products were in demand. I guess you can't go home again. It's been 11 years since I retired now and my 30 years with the company is just a distant memory.
Its been a year since I retired from my job at a state agency here and went back to my office to see who was still there and how things were going.
I think I made the right decision by leaving a year ago. First, I got a bad feeling just walking in the door. Kinda like deja vu. Next I saw that 3 people had left, out of a team of 12, and the office layout appeared exactly the same as before. No changes. One of my closest friends there said she was "miserable" and wanted to quit. The office was freezing and I needed a sweater. Everyone asked if I missed them. ( No.)
Did you go back after you retired to see if you missed it?
I did not miss it, so there was no reason to go back.
When I retired as parking director at a university, I was invited back to the monthly pot lucks our dept always had. Overtime, the employees I knew left and I no longer visited. When I retired as a stripper, I never went back. It isn't the type of environment in which friendships/close relationships develop; very high turnover and competitive. Besides, it would have been too tempting to return to the stage.
Although I wasn't retired, about a year after we moved to VA I went back to Los Angeles for a visit and I stopped by my old job there. Everyone I knew there was gone. Apparently the office manager had been caught cooking the books and almost the entire staff was let go. The rest quit. I have no idea if they were all involved or if it was a "new broom sweeps clean" deal. The new workers didn't know much more than basic details.
Who knew! At the time I left some of those people had been there 20 years and I thought that place would always be the same. Guess I got out of there in the nick of time!
A good number of office relationships are just situational. They exist as long as people are working together. Often after leaving, the relationships quickly disoolve since they were just situational and based on daily working together in the office, and have no extension outside of the office and no interest in relating to each other after departure.
Unless you can name ones children, know where a couple are both originally from, been to their home many times, shared laughs and tears, etc. then they are acquaintances (and many are situational as mat said), not "friends".
I had 34 years with the same employer, but worked in several different locations. The last location lasted 21 years. After 10 months away (after retiring seven years ago), I was hired back for a three-week project. It was a very odd feeling to walk in from the parking lot and up the stairs into the building; it seemed like the ten months had evaportated and I had been there yesterday. I worked my last project there about a year ago, but I still go back from time to time. You find out who your real friends are, and they are not the majority. When I was useful there (playing a somewhat important role in the special projects even though retired), people would smile and greet me and act happy to see me. Now, a lot of them look through me as if I didn't exist. Others, my real friends, act like real friends. In most cases, but not all, I could have guessed which would be which. It is an odd sort of thing.
I go back aat elqast once ayear when soemone retires for their retirement party . I see many quite often away from offices but some it about the only time I see them.I enjoy it.
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