I have written a lot of "Good Bye" emails in my career. I have moved around a lot. I wish I had kept all of them, you know, those "it has been nice working with you all... I will miss you....etc." messages you send to coworkers as you move on to another opportunity. I am getting ready to leave a company I have been with longer than any other. I have never seen a company go through more changes and grow as much as this one has. And never before have I been able to say I had the chance to be part of so much change and growth and I am grateful to have had that opportunity.
But what I am most grateful for is the incredibly talented and hard working people I got to work with every day. Who would ever think that people who see each other once a year at the most could feel so connected? I am not sure I will ever be part of such a special group of people. A company is greater than the sum of its parts and those parts are its people, regardless of the services it provides or the products it makes: a company is nothing without its people. Having said that, it's not easy to make a virtual company work, but we do. Working from home makes your life easier (sometimes) but your work harder (sometimes.) You can't stand up and lean over the cubicle wall to ask a question. You can't gather in a conference room with a white board. Your can't have cake in the break room. You have to communicate at a very different level and you learn to work together, but alone. And we do it. And I think we do it well. Many times we communicate in just the subject line of an email and it is amazing how much information you can convey in the file name of an Excel spreadsheet. Working from home is an amazing feat to say the least.
When I started here my youngest was just 6 months old. Now he starts Kindergarten in the fall. I think I have had 5 relatives die since I have been here. I have watched my co-workers, my friends, go through some really hard times. "It's just a job" is what we say to mitigate stress but the right company, the right people, can make you feel like what you are doing matters and that you are building something together, and that is what is important. It does become like a family and perhaps it should.
So as I move on to another opportunity I will say this - it is never really good bye. Paths cross and then detour in opposite directions all the time. But one thing is for sure, they always cross again. So, I'll see ya all later.
Love,
Christy
