25 Workdays Remaining

The clock is really running out quickly now.

My supervisor is suddenly asking for a lot of work to be done ahead. "Prepare a schedule of planning events for the next year." "Prepare an outline for each planning presentation due for the next six months." They are getting nervous about my departure.

I had a zen moment over the weekend. My brother needs some court documents related to our father's estate from Texas. Ordinarily, I would make phone calls to locate the documents and send a check by mail and wait for two weeks. I realized that, if I wanted, I could get in my car and drive from Iowa to Texas, do the business, visit friends, and take my time doing it. WOW! What a new world I am facing!

Retirement Package Arrives!!!

The long-awaited retirement package has arrived. It is about an inch thick and requires that I fill out a lot of paperwork and submit documents, including my wife's birth certificate and our marriage license, even though we will not be selecting a survivorship options.

30 Workdays + 2 Hours

I was just formally cut out of a new task because I will not be around for any follow-on. It is being used as a familiarization exercise by my replacement. This is the first overt example of this.

I am, however, getting hit with a number of last minute analysis tasks. There are a lot of deadlines being set up for just-prior-to-my-departure.

I just briefed my next level director on the output of a consultant report, with my replacement present. They both knew that I had not read the consultant report on which I was briefing them, although I had helped them to prepare input data. I was able to give a coherent briefing, correctly, and to structure the description of the next level briefing (to the VPs) on the fly. It will be years before my replacement can do that.

Futility Is Rising

I had to go in to work yesterday [Saturday] to perform a totally meaningless calculation. Management did not like the trend lines from the last report, since they indicated a possible drop in market share. So...did they recognize that the unfavorable trend was well within the normal range of variation? No. They panicked. Did they try to fix the problem? No.

The decided to change the metric. We were not using the new metric because the "unknowns" are thrown out and they often exceed the number of the items counted. i.e. the expected error range is larger than the absolute value.

Pointy Haired Boss Nirvana!

"Never try to teach a pig to whistle. You waste your time and annoy the pig!"

This is a major factor in retirement decisions.

35 and Counting

People are beginning to react with surprise that I am still here. An amazing number of people are congratulating me on getting out.

A Milestone

I formally requested my retirement papers, via the internal web site. They will snail mail the paperwork within 15 days, along with a formal calculation of the monthly amount. My wife has to sign off on the [non] survivor option, since we will use some of the extra money to buy life insurance.

This really feels good. I have 36 work days remaining.