Office Goodbyes

As per yesterday's blog, today was the final day in the current workplace. To celebrate / commemorate this we were due to have a barbecue in the afternoon (I think this was also in part to get us out of the building so that our equipment could be packed ready to be moved to the new office for Monday).

Much of the morning therefore revolved around packing and getting ready for the move. In theory some of this had been done all through the week, but on my part (label my pedestal, desk and screen, shred scattered paperwork on desk) there was minimal effort involved - I've simply not been there long enough to collect the level of clutter that seems to have hampered most people. As a result there was a significant end-of-term feel about the day; jokes and minimal work being done. Around midday I relocated myself from upstairs (where half the people were working and half were pretending to work) to downstairs (where there were no pretences about working) - and ended up standing around chatting to people for a while, a significant improvement on actual work.

The barbecue was excellent, done on a seemingly industrial scale - large barbecues that one of my colleagues actually owns - and huge amounts of charred meat (plus other sundries, but that's just background noise at a barbecue. It's all about the meat). There were drinks and there was standing around talking - the main downside was that because it was raining (as per national weather patterns if you try and schedule a barbecue in the UK), the barbecue and associated standing around took place in the garage underneath the building. It made for a slightly bizarre setting!

After the majority of those who were weak and pliable and refused to stay for to long had left, those of us remaining decamped to the pub. While I don't drink (as is well known amongst my readers), I always enjoy these events for two reasons - (1) it's always a much more relaxed setting to have the odd chat with someone about something work related - talk them around to your point of view, or make a suggestion - in short it helps to build better working relationships, not to mention (2) it's genuinely good fun and enjoyable.