This goodbye was bittersweet. I have made the right decision to leave, there is absolutely no doubt about it. I intend to write another post on my reasons why. The day was joyful, strange and manic! Here are some recollections of the day:
The night before I had been baking cakes - vanilla cupcakes with choc fudge icing, mini banana breads, and chocolate cornflake cakes (I foolishly burnt my signature chocolate flapjacks, much to my great distress!) - ready to treat my colleagues to the sweet delights once more.
In the morning I placed all the cakes in different tins and boxes and then put them in a large hessian Waitrose bag, and put it by the door ready to take to work. I finished getting ready, only just remembering to pick up the Waitrose bag, and off I went.
I arrived at the office to find a pink helium balloon in the shape of a star tied to my chair, with a farewell message written in silver glitter. It had a charming little bell to weigh it down, which made me jingle like a cat's collar whenever I moved.
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| The balloon is still bobbing away in the living room at home |
Once my boss arrived I was sent on a brief mission across the road to purchase the best sausage rolls in the whole world ever from the local butcher's for a team breakfast. When I got back a set of presents in blue polka-dot wrapping paper were sitting on my desk, along with a card. There were some really lovely messages in the card, some of real thanks for all the work I'd done, which made me smile. The presents were a lovely little notebook and pen for my writing, and a cookie jar with cookie cutters and heart-shaped silicon cupcake cases to encourage me in my baking adventures!
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| My cute card from my colleagues |
So, the morning rolled on. Presents opened, sausage rolls scoffed, post delivered, and it was time to put out the cakes and invite colleagues from across four floors to come and gorge themselves. That's when I discovered that rather than bring the cakes from home, I had brought back all my stuff that I had cleared from my desk and locker the day before! I'd put them in the same style of Waitrose hessian bag!!! Amazingly my boss let me go home to switch bags and I made it there and back in 20 minutes, which was impressive because we are experiencing a heatwave at the moment, and hot weather always slows me down!
The cakes were duly gobbled after that little fiasco, and then I had a 2 hour lunch break in the pub over the road, celebrating with a few old colleagues as well as my team, and some of the Environment and Road Safety chaps who I have worked closest with over the last two years. We sat basking in the glorious sunshine, eating delicious food and chatting about all kinds of things. I really will miss working with those people in particular, so I was glad they came and joined me for a drink.
I then spent the afternoon running around like a headless chicken, ensuring all was neat and tidy, and that I'd made things clear and easy for the newbie and for my colleague who will be covering my core tasks until said newbie arrives.
Before I knew it, it was gone 5. Apparently it is unacceptable to work past that time on your last day, especially when your last day is a Friday...and pay day...and dress down day... Then my boss insisted on taking me for a drink, as she hadn't bought one for me earlier, so I agreed.
I had a quick drink with her and a few colleagues we bumped into at the pub, and then I made my way home, my pink star balloon bobbing behind me, sprinkling glitter all over me every time it bounced off my head.
I had expected to skip out of that place, overjoyed, and thrilled. I didn't. I am thrilled about leaving, I really am. But it hasn't sunk in yet. It feels so surreal, and in my head I still think I'm going back there. I still feel that I have something to do. And a little bit of me is mourning the only piece of work I actually enjoyed doing there - GIS work on historical mapping for the archaeologists - something I wasn't paid to do, that someone of my pay scale is assumed not to be capable of doing, something that I had to engineer and tie in with council policy to be allowed to do it, and then for only one morning a week. This work reminded me that I am capable of so much more than lousy admin, which I was never truly cut out to do anyway, being rubbish at filing and all... I had intellectually stimulating conversations with the archaeologists, and of course we had shared interests. When I did research work for them I felt like I was doing something useful, I was using my brain, and it was like studying, which deep down I do miss. Quite a lot actually.
I will be looking for part-time jobs in the future where I can do something similar, but for now I am going onto something else.
So, I do feel a bit melancholy about that. The current financial climate is just not a good time to work in local government, the promotion opportunities are few and far between, and lots of specialist work is being cut, sometimes completely. I had to get out. There was no question about it.
I know that my time working at the council has been a valuable life experience, not good most of the time, but I have learnt from it, and I hope that it has made me stronger.
I definitely made the right decision to leave, and a little sadness aside, I do not regret it.
Photos my own.
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