Recycling

Last week I stayed late at my office one evening, I was cleaning it out, preparing to move to a new building to start my new job. I’m excited about my new job and initiated the job change myself. It’s just that I love my old job too.

I’ve been working in that building for years, and in the same general job for years. It’s a demanding and exciting job. I was responsible for several critical business systems that run the supply chain (shipping orders and getting them to the customers) for a large company. My job distilled to four words was “keep the systems up.” I’ve worked on just about every single project involving the systems I was responsible for. I had a great team of people working for me, a dynamic job with a lot of responsibility. There was a down side though, I wasn’t learning anymore and I was there too long. The time was right to move on.

So I began cleaning out my office. I started at 2:00 PM and didn’t finish until 8:30 PM. Since I rarely throw things out, I had hundreds of folders containing the details of various projects. Then I started unceremoniously dumping them into a recycle bin. Years of work and accomplishments passed through my hands as I carefully separated the transparencies, white paper and colored paper into different piles. I started asking myself questions.

What did all my accomplishments and completed projects amount to? What testament is there to them? So many of my former colleagues no longer work there, victims of outsourcing, so they won’t remember. My internal customers, whom I referred to as my users (they use the systems I supported), have all cycled through their jobs. I’ve had a few different bosses too. So really, no one but me understands the contributions I’ve made.

So I sorted and disposed of the evidence of years of accomplishments. I filled several recycle bins till they were overflowing. It seems that my accomplishments were now getting recycled. I cried on my way home from work.

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