Trying to remember. Job #1 and #2, worked a normal shift, then went home. Job #3, they gave me a small party. Job #4, #6 and #9 were “here’s a box, get your stuff” layoffs, Job #5, #7 and #8 had small parties, but the actual last day was boxing up files and giving status reports to my successors.
I worked for a huge national bank that merged with another huge national bank. I survived 2initial layoffs, but then was transferred to a new group based on the project I was wrapping up. I was the only one in the group at my location, the rest of the group was located half a country away. The boss never came to visit, even after repeated vows to do so and never sent me much work, in spite of my repeated pleas for more to do. In short, the writing was on the wall. My new boss decided to give me the official “your job has been eliminated” news via telephone (classy, but it gets better). I was called in to my former manager’s office to find my new boss on speakerphone The conversation went something like this:
New boss: Blah, blah, your position has been eliminated
Me: Can you give me the business reason?
NB: {stammer, sputter}We just don’t think you will be a good fit in this group
Me: So it’s not a lay off, it’s a firing (knowing that would set off all kinds of alarms because of my unblemished record, great reviews, termination paperwork being set up as a “layoff due to lack of work”, etc)
NB: {SPUTTER, SPIT, SPUTTER} No! We just don’t think your skill set is a good fit…
Me: You never sent me much in the way of assignments but please give me examples from the work you did assign where my results were less than adequate or timely.
NB: {SPUTTER, SPUTTER, SPIT} Well, um, you see, um, you don’t have the skills we need!
Me: Exactly what skills were you looking for?
NB: {More hemming and hawing, listed a few generic things}
Me: Respectfully, you don’t know whether I have those skills or not. Not only did you not assign me tasks to validate those skills, you also never asked. Look, I’m not trying to change your mind, you have made a business decision. We have, though, established that it’s not a lay off and not about my performance, at least be man enough to tell me the real reason.
NB: You don’t have the skill set. Old Manager will give you the paperwork. Goodbye.
My old manager, who I really felt sorry for, had to go through all the lay off paperwork with me. He did say that he had never witnessed a more professional handling of a termination meeting from someone being dismissed.
On the bright side, I got a large severance package (I had been there 15 years) and 2 weeks notice, so my last 2 weeks were spent networking with my contacts and saying my goodbyes.
Twice it was training my replacement who was only chosen that morning. I pitied the poor b@stard.
I once worked at a place that had such horrible working conditions, it was more like a sweatshop than a business. I had a managerial position, with an increasing work load, but it took a while to get off my ass and look for a new job. As soon as I got one, I gave my two-weeks notice. The owner acted like he couldn’t care less whether I left or stayed. Two weeks went by, and it was finally my last day. I wondered why I hadn’t heard anything about my replacement, especially the need to train him/her (there were a lot of things that nobody else knew about). Late that afternoon the owner called me into his office, and literally BEGGED me to stay . . . but not even offering me more money (not that it would have changed my mind). I made a short comment about his “bollocks” and walked out.
A few months later I ran into one of my former coworkers. Apparently the owner never replaced me, thinking that the work I did would somehow be absorbed by everyone else. Then the place went out of business.
The last day at school was only 2 hours long. My retirement luncheon had been the day before, on Institute Day, so I said good- bye to everyone then.
As you can imagine, on the last day of school the kids were bouncing off the walls and controlling them took most of my, and everybody else’s time. We end the day with an assembly, and when they’re dismissed the teachers immediately go and stand next to their assigned fire alarms because junior high kids think it’s hilarious to pull the alarms as they leave.
Add to that the fact that I had to get to St. Louis as quickly as possible after the kids left so I could catch a flight to Dallas for a wedding the next day, and you will have a picture of my last day.
I’m sort of happy it ended that way. I had my room cleaned out and I had to leave so I couldn’t wander around the building saying good-bye and talking to everybody. One minute I was there, and the next I was on my way to the airport and all done.
After nineteen years in the same place, they moved all their computers to Pittsburgh, and I didn’t want to go.
The last two weeks were very hectic. But the last day, we took it easy. Lots of hugs and handshakes. I gave my old boss a copy of “The Spider and the Starfish.” Lots of paperwork. Then the security check-out, and that was that. Really, a very minimal “workday.” No actual work got done.
(Oh, and the system automatically dialed my cell phone every time there was a problem for the next two weeks!)
When I retired just over a year ago, I had given the boss about 3 weeks’ notice and helped train my replacement. On the last day, I worked until the usual quitting time of 5 PM, keeping the boss informed on what I was working on and the ongoing issues. At 5, I took all the open files into his office, gave him a final update, and said I was leaving. “Now???” he said. “Yep,” I said. As I waltzed out into the parking lot I felt like shouting, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!”
At least you got called into the office. The last thing my sup said to be was “See you Tuesday” (Memorial Day weekend) as I left at 5 on Friday. Three & a half hours later I got a call from my agency saying the client had terminated me due to “performance issues” they couldn’t elaborate on & I wasn’t told about. Then an hour later I got another call from them wanting to no if I still wanted the health insurance that was supposed to start the next month taken out of my check, and also could I drive over to the client’s site to drop of my security badge. :mad: He was really surprised & put out when I refused and asked for an address to mail it to. Other stuff happened to.
I’ve had 3 voluntary departures from jobs:
Job A: Leaving for grad school. This was quiet, no “farewell” lunches or anything - just came in on my last day, gathered the last of my stuff and that was that.
Job B: Leaving for a job across the country. Party in the week before I left, then the actual day of, I came in to finish cleaning out my desk and turn in my ID and parking permit. It was a good place to work, and I cared (and still do) about those coworkers. I may have cried before I walked out the door.
Job C: Leaving again for a job across the country. There had been drinks at a bar with coworkers a day or so earlier. Last day included exit interview with HR, cleaning out the desk and final goodbyes to office mate and such. I’d been unhappy enough there, that when I ran into a coworker as I walked out the door for the last time, I was told that I was smiling - the first real smile they’d seen me have in a while.
(eventually I’ll leave current job, because it’ll be necessary to move up. That’s going to be a rough departure again because I really like the people I work with.)
The last office I left was because of a transfer I took to a different facility, not because I left the company altogether. No fanfare, just packing my stuff up from my desk, leaving my manual on my boss’s desk, and leaving for the weekend. Monday, I showed up at my new office as instructed.