The Final Day

 

Today I closed the books on over 39 years with AT&T. I had hoped to hang in there another 3-5 years and retire on my terms, but the years of job cuts finally found our team. I honestly don't think the "powers that be" understand the implications of letting us go, but they're laser focused on one thing: reducing expenses. It's a sour ending to my career and that really bothers me. The good thing is I spent the past 5 years paying off my debt and thanks to mom I was able to side the house and have a sizeable savings account. My one regret is gaining all the weight back, so addressing that is going to be my "job" starting Monday !

I logged in as usual this morning but we found we were pretty much locked out of everything other than mail and teams. We couldn't even "clock in". No surprise, since today is the end of employment. I already deleted all of my emails, files and bookmarks anyways, so the jokes on them. We had a team call just to chat and we've scheduled a Zoom call for next Friday to catch up. We were talking about the job search and lack of degree's and one of my colleagues mentioned they "bought" a Bachelor's Degree online ! I am totally going to do that !

I deleted the weekday 7 am alarm from my phone. Until I have a job, I can get up whenever I want. This still doesn't feel real. The last task will be uninstalling the company software from my laptop. I also have to send back the 2 company laptops I have but never used. They wanted my badge too but I told my boss I shredded it. I'm not giving it back ! It'll be a reminder of who I was. HRID 2780224 .. UID WM2762 ... 04-29-85 through 05-24-24. 315-442-3596. That was me for all these years .. just a series of numbers. Nameless, faceless, in a massive telecom world.

I said goodbye to Ambrosia and Laurie and then logged out for the final time at 2:56 pm. I uninstalled the VMware software, shut down my old personal laptop and finished packaging the 2 company laptops I need to send back. I kept the power supplies so I can move around with my computer and not worry about moving the power supply. If anyone asks, I'll say one was left in Rochester and one was discarded as it didn't work. I enjoyed some YouTube video's and a 1911 hard cider while waiting for 5 pm to roll around. At 5 pm I would be officially unemployed and I decided I would mark that with a long shower to wash away the past and prepare for the future. 

My house is pretty much a mess as I haven't done anything since before I broke my hand. I'll start working on it room by room. I didn't shed any tears over this major life change. Laurie shed a lot of them but for some reason I just can't cry about life events. I didn't even cry when my mother died.