Last Day of Work This Year

I may not think so during the long stretch from New Year’s Day to Memorial Day when there are no paid holidays at work, but I am blessed to annually have time off between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. Since almost everyone in the company has this time off, it is the one time of the year when I can be away from work and not have additional work pile up at least equal to the number of days I have been on vacation. In this regard, the Christmas holiday break is the one time a year when I can feel as though I am on vacation.

Being the last regularly scheduled work day for me this year, I have reflected back on what this day was like over the years. Tradition is passing away. When I first started with the company and worked in large program settings there was an executive vice president who had the reputation of Scrooge. Every year it was known that late in the day he would come by each of the programs reporting to him, ostensibly to wish the program leaders Merry Christmas. Everyone knew what he was really doing was seeing who was working the afternoon of the last work day of the year. Seemingly only those who were independently wealthy or possessed incriminating photographs dared to leave early. I did not know anyone who was independently wealthy and no one ever questioned Scrooge’s moral character, so I doubt there was anything of which a picture could be taken. One year there was even a rumor Scrooge had come by a program and then returned later in the day to find out who had left before the end of their assigned shift. The pattern of waiting for Scrooge to leave continued until our soon-to-retire Chief Engineer excused himself from the program’s potluck and made a telephone call. He came back saying instead of waiting, he had called Scrooge and told him the team had done a fantastic job during the year and he was sending us all home early. Scrooge’s response was to wish the Chief Engineer a Merry Christmas and to thank him for standing up for his people and what he believed was right. The next year a transformed Scrooge made his trek to all of the programs in the morning. Thereafter potlucks were generally cancelled for the last work day. Potlucks without people rarely succeed.

After leaving the program environment I began to feel separated from the product. Developing staffing forecasts, for example, is necessary work but not one that readily gives a sense of being part of something bigger. I therefore made it a point annually on the last work day of the year to physically go touch the product we build. Hey, my company really does build something and I have touched it. Throughout the year the little excursion reminded me the company does not exist to satisfy my administrative or regulatory requirements, but to build and sell something at a profit. In 2001 though the company’s leaders intentionally made a cultural shift so the headquarters were moved so it was not located near any of the production operations - ending my holiday tradition.

I like what I do and where I do it, but sometimes, like now, I miss being with the people who design and make the end products. I am afraid my new tradition is simply to be among the few who actually bothered to come in to work and be the last to leave. I need to start a new tradition.