randy_byers | Shy and Retiring

Yesterday I took a cow-orker out for drinks at the Deca to celebrate his impending retirement. He's quite anti-social and insisted (to no one's surprise) that he didn't want a party, so as far as I know this was the only work-related acknowledgment of the transition. He did allow me to invite the person he works most closely with as well.

T. was one of the few people I supervised in my brief stint as a supervisor, so that's where my mind goes, as he goes. I guess he isn't the last person here who worked under me, because I even more briefly supervised a large office that has had approximately zero turnover since then -- and we're talking probably a decade ago now. It was that move from supervising two people to supervising ten people that convinced me I was not cut out for supervision. It seemed to me to be related to my lack of parenting impulses as well. I'm a good lieutenant, but a terrible captain. Or something like that.

Anyway, T's plans to retire at 62 were at first disrupted by the economic collapse, but not for long. I hope it works out for him. He loves to travel, and he isn't sure how much of that he'll be able to do now, after a long trip to Germany in May. I'm happy for him, even though it adds to the feeling that I'm rapidly becoming the old guard. I guess he's proof that you can work here till retirement without moving up the ladder, but I do wonder sometimes if I will start to look like dead wood at some point.