YS has officially left us. We had a meal with him tonight in Brown Lane. It was wet, but there were 17 of us. YS was just sitting across me on the dinner table. LF (our boss) was next to him. The leaving speech by YS was heartfelt. I was so near to him, so hearing his tone I can tell he was close to tears at some points. LF introduces YS with such style, telling us how he started and how he blossomed eventually, undergoing through some hard times. She didn't just say the good things, but implying things weren't often as good, but YS got over it and handled it well. It's very sincere and from her heart. When YS was making his speech. He did felt he had mixed feeling about the decision, but thankful about his experience at Loughborough.
This brought me back to think about my own leaving speech at Aberdeen. That was like two years ago. I was really unhappy in there. You often thought in an environment like that, how it impacts upon people and their behaviors and how their behaviors impact upon you. You then question about the "nature of people" in the process, all in all, reveals to me a bit about the real characters of some people and it just felt so not right and you felt sad for them. Generally, I think I met friendly people wherever I worked. I guess we all know we should not take things at face value and most of the time, should not expect too much, or at least learn and be prepared to revise our expectation.
I think I made it quite public that I was not happy at Aberdeen, very subtly, just like their styles. There were issues of thrust they have on people and hence they didn't show enough confidence to even want to support you. When I was at my probation, workloads were huge (unlike over at Loughborough) as the turnover of staff was consistent, which explain the problematic work situations. I remembered that the immediate boss tried to talk to me on my last day in the office kitchen. She didn't get the chance, because I quickly told her, I hope she gets the replacement soon, then I left her. Well, whatever color she is, yellow, white or black, if she is not a good person, she is not a good person, she is human after all.
As a matter of "procedure", just like that immediate boss, who has to do things not to be supportive of her subordinate, and which she will still do it, I also received gifts and a little leaving do upon my resignation as well. I received it with some best wishes from colleagues, which I truly miss, but didn't think too much of it. At the end when I have to write an email back to say "thank you" (which normally people do), I put a note back at the end of the message, "hope the management learn something dealing with me on the probation, that way they will go far" and I end up receive some messages from former colleague who cheers me about it. There you go, if this is the way it is, it has to be the way IT IS.
I remember I told YS, after knowing he was resigning, that, no place is an Heaven, it is the expectation that we must learn to manage. For my case, it is too extreme in Aberdeen. In the end, I still believe in a phase I read a while back, if you cannot change yourselves to suit an environment, change an environment to suit you. I am lucky I can do that, and also glad that now things have changed for the better for me. :D
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