Good-byes

When I was an agent taking calls, I had my little circle of friends. We took breaks together, ate lunch together... we generally had similar interests. And when you're an agent taking calls at Corporation X, you often have the misfortune of believing rumors and innuendo instead of taking the time to figure things out for yourself.

Now that I'm a supervisor at Corp X, I have the advantage of being included with some of the socializing with agents, and other supervisors. I've known some of the agents since I was taking calls; some of the newer agents are on my team and I really like them a lot... they're way cool people. It's easy to interact with them and get to know them.

I don't like to use the word clique; there's definitely a group of folks who are very tight-knit and have had a lot of good times together. Since getting to know them better, they're a great bunch of folks; I hate the fact I paid attention to the rumors and the gossip. Anyway, I'm coming to the party pretty late, since I'm the newest supervisor in our part of the project. Or, it feels like I'm late because one of our cornerstones is leaving.

I didn't have this person as a trainer; didn't really start working all that closely with him until I was in a position to mentor agents in training prior to getting a team of my own. But I knew who he was, didn't know a whole lot about him. Now I know that he's the guy that's super fun to talk to, the one with the goofy grin, the dude you can talk to about everything. He's the guy I wish I had gotten to know better because tomorrow is his last day at work. This weekend, he drives back home to Ohio.

I'm torn on this one because I don't know him as well as everyone else. But sitting here, writing this, I've got that hollow feeling in my stomach and in my throat that tells me I'm going to be affected by his departure. Not knowing him as well doesn't change the fact he's a good person; dog knows Corp X needs good people.

Not really sure where else to take this... I'll have to see what the day brings. The one thing I know: Good-byes suck, so I'll keep telling myself that this is just TTFN -- ta-ta for now.