Ever Had One of Those Situations Where You Thought You Were Doing Something for Somebody Else but Really You Were Helping Yourself?

Note: There's no way for me to write this post without sounding like an egotistical, self-aggrandizing nob. Sometimes, when the shoe fits, all you can do is wear it...

Before I stopped working, my boss asked me if I'd thought about how best to give the people I'd worked with over the years the chance to say goodbye. I had to admit I hadn't, but, happily, some others had thought that there might be benefit to having an event where I could hang out, we could have some snacks and drinks, and a folks could stop by for a chat. 

Last Thursday we had that event. Before it started my boss warned me that I'd be surprised by the number of people that would show up. Indeed. I was surprised by the number of people that showed up. Aside from my friend Anne who flew back from Boston, it felt like I talked with a couple of hundred people. 

And here's the funny thing. Before I arrived, I had thought I was attending for the benefit of the folks who'd be carrying on after I left. I didn't particularly want to be haunting the halls like Jacob Marley, and it seemed the least I could do was give the folks who would find it helpful the chance to say goodbye. But it didn't take long before I realized that all of the benefits from the event were mine.

Like, I suspect, most of the working population, I work in a job that one would generally describe as thankless. My colleagues and I perform our tasks, and we assume (though who really knows?) it has value somewhere down the chain, but for the most part we're guessing more than knowing. And if you don't find the work itself motivation enough, you generally move on to something else. 

But imagine if you could spend three hours at the end of your job listening to people tell you that the work you did had positively impacted them, making the work they did easier to do or better. How gratifying and overwhelming would that be?

That was the gift my my colleagues gave me: three hours of being told that the work I'd spent nine years doing had mattered. 

I've said it before, but there are some gifts that just can't ever be repaid. 

The key to attracting a crowd: have good snacks...

A few of my minions*

* To explain: As part of my job I managed three separate teams. Since I occasionally needed to reach out to them as a group or schedule group meetings and whatnot, I created an Outlook group with the alias, "Minions." Eventually they figured it out, so one of them had T-shirts made that read, "John's Minions" (including the world's worst picture of me), and they all wore them to the event. Have I mentioned how easy it is to look like you know what you're doing when the people you work with are awesome?