I worked at the Main Campus yesterday. Since the 26th was Christmas (observed), it wasn't too bad: no adult supervision and most of the suit & tie offices were empty.
Today, not so much, and I am looking forward to it as only an achy, short-tempered sixtiesh person who remembers the old days can. It's not so much that the place is awful; the remaining staff are hardworking, decent folks and the current owners are not deliberately evil. But almost all my peers are gone, as are nearly all my friends and long-term acquaintances. So the whole thing has an air of returning to the little town where you grew up, only to find most of the things you remember are gone and what remains is altered in strange and discomfiting ways. Being away for most of the pandemic hasn't helped; the place I remember is the place I worked at for over thirty years -- and that place was already gone before we dispersed in March of 2020.
It still pays the same, at least -- well, a little more. And the health insurance is good, reason enough to hang on in and of itself. But I sure do miss some of the people, let go when their position was eliminated, retired, moved away or dead. The hallways and rooms are haunted by memories these days.
Update
3 days ago
8 comments:
"So the whole thing has an air of returning to the little town where you grew up, only to find most of the things you remember are gone and what remains is altered in strange and discomfiting ways."
If you think it's bad at sixtiesh, just wait 'til you're seventiesh. ;-)
I can relate. One of the side effects of being older.
If the "fight" is gone, Hang it Up and check out old recipes. Just saying. If you can't find a reason to be there, be somewhere else where you matter. Make the memories for the next person or go bake cookies.
Aon: I never expected it would get better.
Need the money, need the insurance and I intend to hold out until dealing with the place gets too weird.
Understand. Take care.
Yup, it's an odd feeling, being the senior tech and thinking "who are all these strangers and why are they so young?"
I'm only in my 30's but I get the same feeling when going past my old high school. It's kind of weird but then you realize if you could go back you wouldn't because you've grown out of that mentality.
The really weird thing is realizing one day that you're one of the senior people there.
Or that a lot of coworkers were toddlers when you first started.
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