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The last Lunch

When i awoke Friday Morning, the last day of work, it quickly occurred to me i was already 3 hours late. You see, the Department which is a 24 hour facility, was to unceremoniously decommission at exactly 5 PM so most of us were scheduled to work 8-5 that day... I've started at 11 am for almost 4 years now so the 8 AM start really threw me off. When i was leisurely strolling into the Department, large coffee in hand, everyone was on their feet chatting-- 80% of the workload had been sent away to India already. Everyone sort of just laughed off the fact that i was waltzing in without a worry in the world almost 4 hours late for my shift haha. The entire day was basically spent saying goodbye to each other, except me, i spent most the day persuading more people to go to Mexico for the weekend... Friends from other Departments dropped by throughout the day to bid us goodluck and farewell almost creating the effect of a "Living Wake". Some even took pictures as if we were some kind of celebrities in transient. Well when it was my turn to join in the digi cam fray, i grabbed a large trash-can we were using to dump out unwanted work materials, and situated it front center of the focus frame. Our bosses who flew in from the East Coast --to see us through in the proper way-- as they claimed, didn't seem to grasp the trash-can symbolism though. Thanks to Moiz, our Indian friend, he proclaimed i was being Metaphorical... Smart kid that one!

As we expected, food was provided incrementally during the day. Ranch style BBQ chicken, baby back ribs, beans, veggies and mashed potatoes... Surprisingly the bosses decided to let us go almost 3 hours ahead of schedule. Possibly because our last check had been written out already-- plus people wore impatient faces after the big lunch. An entire day to spend a last day is a bit too much to begin with anyway. I think the perfect ending to this rather undramatic day would have been immediately after that feast of a lunch. See, the decision to send us off at 2:30 instead of the 5 pm intended time, put a bind to the people who were scheduled to leave before 2:30. Since it was only 30 minutes or so, they wanted to stick around and exit as a group. As a result they ended up working unpaid overtime. How stupid is that?

By nearly 2:45, after an almost gloomy toast (Champagne courtesy of Mark) and last cigarettes together, we were officially jobless but technically not unemployed just yet. But despite that, driving off that parking lot for the last time, gave me, as i am sure for a lot of us, the feeling of emptiness. I think i was a bit disappointed with the fact that our last day was very uneventful and that many of the people who vowed to the Mexico trip bailed out without so much a notice. And although we began hanging out as a group as a direct effect to this lay off i was a bit saddened that no one bothered to make suggestions for a Friday night out. I had that in mind the entire day and alluded to it periodically but no one seemed interested enough... So driving home with a somewhat heavy heart, expecting a Friday night filled with job uncertainty in mind, i get a call from my Technical Recruiter who gave news that i've been offered the position i had applied for, just under an hour before i was officially unemployed... Perfect ending to a rather uneventful day huh?

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Friday, September 29, 2006