random thoughts – Day 1,835 – (Wednesday) – camaraderie and potato

The end is near for work life as I have known it for the past nearly-nine years. The merger is on the horizon. Colleagues have been notified of having or not having roles post-merger, and lately, every project, every once regular fundraiser or event or gathering has overtones of “this is the last time I’ll [fill in the blank].” I suppose it’s better than not knowing it’s the last time for something and having it brutally yanked away without warning, and in some cases it's a relief. There are some tasks I deal with that I can't wait to be free of.

In some respects, the looming finality is bringing people together. It’s possible that being no longer certain we’ll see person A from team B regularly is making us more deliberate and intentional in our interactions. Or maybe it's just me. 

For years, our IT team has organized and hosted the Baked Potato Day and raffle, a fundraiser benefitting Sun Santa. The team provides baked white and sweet potatoes and a variety of toppings and for $5 we would gather, load our potatoes with our individual choices of toppings and socialize. 

Loaded baked sweet potato. 

Today was our last ever Baked Potato Day, so it had extra meaning as we moved down the assembly line and stood in the Community Room saying, “dang, this is the last ever Baked Potato Day.” And it was the best baked sweet potato I have ever loaded with an obscene amount of shredded and melted cheeses, broccoli, crispy onions and bacon bits. It was mildly disappointing that I didn't win any of the raffle baskets loaded with grocery gift cards or lottery scratch tickets, because I had some plans for those winnings. 

One of the departments in my building started hosting a Wednesday gathering at the end of the day, and not going feels like a missed opportunity to connect with people with whom I won’t share the bond of common employment for much longer. Today I had the chance to chat with people I have only connected with via email or not at all and it was great. And sadly, it won’t be long before it might require a lot more effort to connect with this group, mostly because I'm not always very good at that.

Inside The Old Court.

Pub of the Month, a once-regular gathering at a local establishment which evaporated during the pandemic, has been resurrected. Tonight was the March edition at The Old Court in downtown Lowell. The place was crowded with my purely unscientific breakdown of 90% bankers and 10% unsuspecting innocent civilians. And every conversation carried with it a sense of finality.  Will I see so-and-so from branch administration again? I don’t know, but it was sure a blast seeing her tonight. And there was regret that in nearly nine years, I’ve had too few conversations with her and too many other colleagues at a handful of events.

Maybe it’s just me and the camaraderie was always there and I just wasn’t part of it or forgot to pay attention. Maybe it is just recently amplified due to facing the finality of work life as we have known it. In any event, I’ll take the comfort of colleagues wherever it is offered. Change is coming, we are in the same boat, and meeting up regularly feels good. It’s everything I had hoped for when I started working with this bank. It’s unfortunate it took nine years and an acquisition for me to finally find it.