I outlasted our cleaning lady.

She even moved with us, from the 15th to the 24th floor. She's not even an official employee, but she's always been there. She was oldish and spoke Polish and I never said more than thanks or "sorry, I need to make sure I didn't throw out something important." Sometimes after a day of coworkers showing how smart they were--often to each cubicle row in turn--I needed simple non-exciting conversation. Before when she left I figured she was on vacation--it was a topic of remedial conversation before--but it's been about a month now. I hope it was retirement, or promotion.

I remember staying late at work and hearing another cleaning staff person address her by her name, but I forgot that. My cubicle has one of those cheesy nametags. I doubt she remembers too many of our names now.

When I started working here, I wondered who would leave first. It's that way with many other coworkers. I've outlasted more people than I thought I would, including the fellow who scored 10 million on Robotron and, with a friend, 6666665 on Q*Bert (he was upset they didn't go for 5555555.) I'm comfortable enough to have stuff that's been in my cubicle for five years. Sometimes I wonder what weird things people would miss/remember about me when I go. But I don't quite have enough to retire yet.

Comments 3

honestgamer Staff Dec 12, 2009

I always wonder who I'll outlast when I go to a new job, but I never seem to stay all that long so that answer is usually "not a whole lot of people." I'm almost never at a single job for more than two years. Of course, my current job is retail, so I've seen a lot of familiar faces leave... mostly because they got fired for stupid stuff. I wonder who is wondering now if they'll outlast me...

zippdementia Dec 13, 2009

A strangely nostalgic and emotional post.

aschultz Blogger Dec 14, 2009

Sometimes I'd like to see bigger turnaround because it gets my life in gear, a sort of "look what he did--I should try this." But other times it's good to have security.

Also, I find that googling people or checking their facebooks (what is shared with nonusers) can give me an idea of what people I remember are doing, and while it's not jealousy per se it's "hey, look what he did, I should try something."

In a way I'm sadder about the cleaning lady leaving than many of my former coworkers. I wonder what the guys who've been rehired once or twice (they got laid off in recessions & I'm a bit jealous really--severance pay and all) think about it, or what the cleaning lady thinks/thought about re-seeing them, or knowing layoffs have occurred.

While it'd be hard to take that sort of job, the ability to be a bit nosy just by accidentally noticing things in cubicles is intriguing.