The long goodbye(s)

I have a couple of weeks until I actually leave my current job (or, rather, it leaves me). Where I am--and in our current circumstances--I've seen a lot of people get laid off. Some of the departures elicited little more than a shrug from the remaining employees.

So I was wondering what would happen as word started to trickle out about my being laid off. Well, the first few people started to get the word yesterday morning. One of the veteran department heads sat down with me and was in tears. Another called me and said, "Even though you've only been here a couple of years, you're one of us, and we're all very upset about this."

Some translation of that... A couple of years is nothing in terms of longevity at this hospital. The person who was saying it has been there over 25 years. Also, "one of us" is a great compliment. They've seen a lot of people come and go, especially in the last few years. To be told you're not just another of those transient figures means a lot. And the "we" of "we're all very upset about this" refers to the veterans who are the core of the place.

Late yesterday, I had a meeting with a manager and her VP. The VP came along, due to concern about a particularly problematic employee we needed to discuss. The VP hadn't heard the news about me. When he did, he seemed genuinely upset. He had assumed I'd be taking over what remained of HR--as many had assumed (including my SVP who had recommended me for the job).

When this particular VP heard who was getting the job instead of me, the next words out of his mouth were, "oh, shit."

Yeah, I know I should just wish everyone well and go on my way. In the end, I will. But it's good to know I'm respected and also that everyone seems to thing this is a deeply unjust--and stupid--move on the part of top management.

Well, I'll just make nice for a couple of weeks and then go on my way.

In the meantime, I have a job interview Monday. So things are rolling already. Of course, I don't even know the title of the job. As weird as that is, a colleague passed along my resume, and I got a call from a secretary who said, "Can you come in for an interview on Monday?" But I don't know the job level, pay level, etc. So nothing may come of it. We shall see.

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P.S.--even the representative of the nurses' union is pissed about this. She heard yesterday and told me, "you've done a lot of good for labor relations here . . . What are they doing?!" Not bad if I even have that level of respect from people with whom I've fought some rather heated battles.