End of an Era
October 27th, 2008
Today was the first weekday of my post-Cover-All life. I had thought that it might be weird sleeping in and not going to work today but it was actually a great day. I got to spend a bunch of time with Kaelyn and watch a few episodes of Ken Burns’ The Civil War. All-in-all, a good day.
Friday was my last day at Cover-All. It turned out to be a very good day as well. I actually did a decent amount of work, surprising even myself. Got Dustin up and running as the new master of all things Wizard and finished off a couple of tasks for myself. I spent a good deal of time saying goodbye to people and reminiscing.
I was very pleased when the CFO (my boss’ boss) asked me to come to his office for a chat. Part of me was a little disappointed that he didn’t want to discuss why I was leaving – Cover-All is a great company with the potential to be even greater and I would have really liked it if my departure could open some eyes which could make it even better. Nevertheless, we had a very nice discussion about what I accomplished while I was there and a little about where I am going. He expressed his appreciation for my hard work and that made me feel really good – Cover-All’s CFO is a man that I have really enjoyed working with, a man I both respect and like.
For lunch I went out to Boston Pizza with about ten of the people who I have really built some bonds with. People that were more of friends than co-workers. Even though the service at Boston Pizza is absolute shit, it did have the side effect of giving us a little more time to sit and talk.
In the afternoon, there was cake. A lot of cake. There were not as many people invited to join in the cake as there should have been – my boss set things up but he sits with the downstairs IT people and my group sat upstairs. I think he underestimated the number of people upstairs that I actually worked with on a regular basis. Without a doubt the highlight of the whole cake event was the picture I was given – put together by Ian in Marketing with help from Dustin and a few others. It was a picture of some of the cast from the original Star Trek but they had replaced Kirk’s head with mine. Below it was a quote, “Prepare to leave orbit – those men can’t be saved.” — Evil Kirk. Priceless! I’ll scan it one of these days and add it up here for all to see.
The rest of the day passed quickly – lots of hands to shake and such. I had thought that I was not going to hear anything at all from the CEO but then, when I got home and checked my personal email, there was a very nice thank you message (and a “come back to us when you’re sick of the new guys” poke) he had sent in reply to the farewell message I sent to everyone I liked there. It was a very nice end to my day, and a nice way to close that chapter of my professional life.
