November 21, 2015

D-???

We invite my cousin to dinner; she's a doctor and she's coming, probably sent by her mother - my aunt - to better understand the situation and give emotional support if needed. It makes me smile and it makes me happy, not for the support, which is not needed at all, but for the thought. 

I'm fine, really.

November 20, 2015

D - ???

The time has come to break the news to those who, in the office, I call friends before coworkers. No one seems surprised, but then even I wasn't surprised...

I receive unanimous and unconditioned support on the fact that I will find soon another job, and this is undoubtedly a nice thing to hear, but - no point hiding it - I am still worried for tomorrow.

In the late afternoon I meet the outplacement consultant. Although I know that a part of his job is to make you see the future brighter than it actually is, he makes a very good impression to me, which is not necessarily a good thing, since the company he's working for is much smaller and less formalized (and I would be much more hard pressed to rationally choose it). He radiates a lot of confidence, as he should, and one of his statements stays with me long after the meeting has ended: "The coming months will be uncharted, but not necessarily hostile, territory." I realize that I have not walked on uncharted territory for a long, long time. And, all in all, I realize that it's something I'm missing.

November 19, 2015

D - ???

Second round of communication, still institutional. Today it's my four direct reports. Incidentally, I find that in the upper floors, and even in some of the lower ones, the news is already in the public domain. I also find that it does not bother me at all. As a matter of fact, when I disclose the news there's a bit of emotion in the room, but after a moment of understandable confusion the thoughts of my now former team goes immediately to who will replace me. Life goes on, as it should be. For me and for them.

November 18, 2015

D-???

The negotiation goes on. Yet another meeting in the HR Director's office. The good thing is that I get out of it a little richer each time, although I have the strong feeling that we have not yet reached the limit. We are very close to the economic objective I set myself at the beginning of the negotiation, and this is the only good news of this period.

I'll go on.

November 16, 2015

D - ???

The time has come for the first official communication. I give it to the person who will replace me and who has been one of my direct reports for a couple of years, asking her to keep it for herself.

Trapattoni would say that now the cat is out of the bag. There's no escape from reality now. This thing will happen. 

Luckily life goes on (and God forbid...!), I contact an outplacement company through a friend of a friend, and we set up a meeting. 

Time will tell.

November 15, 2015

D - ???

It 's true that everything is relative. In the locker room before the weekly soccer match, I told my friends that soon I would be looking for a new job. The reactions were various and, in some ways, even surprising. 

The most comical came from an entrepreneur, an insurance agent, who after having asked about the severance package amount, came out with a "What the f*ck! I would love to get that kind of money! I am definitely envying you now!" It was an important food for thought moment, over which I know I will often return in the coming months.

November 12, 2015

D - ???

It's nearly eight o'clock in the evening, I am in the elevator at home. A Whatsapp by a colleague, who is not supposed to know yet, tells me that the news is spreading. A series of messages follows, good for the heart, signs of appreciation sincere and unsolicited. 

Eventually these are the things that really matter. 

I remember the standing ovation made at ​​my last convention by three hundred Algerian colleagues when I told them I was leaving, I remember all of them standing still in front of the screen on which I was projecting the image of my wife on our wedding day, the real reason for my departure.

I remember, a lifetime ago, one Sunday afternoon of Christmas shopping interrupted to help a team of colleagues, a team of friends, in need for an expiring deadline.

 After all it's true, all that 's left of you when you're gone is the memory you left ...

November 11, 2015

D-???

My wife calls me, saying that she received a strange phone call from my aunt. It's possible that my father, who is the only one knowing but suffers from a congenital inability to keep secrets, has mistakenly leaked something. I realize that it will be impossible to maintain control on this piece of information, take a deep breath and decide to call my aunt. Her reaction is what was expected, and I spend the next half hour trying to reassure her. They are positive, these calls. They help make this thing that is happening to me seem more real.

November 10, 2015

D-???

Second round of negotiation. I halve the distance towards my goal basically without a shot being fired, which makes me think that there is still ample space for improvement. I decide to do something you don't normally do in a negotiation, and I unveil my reserve price, stating that I will not accept a eurocent less than that. In game theory it is called credible threat. We will close, and we both know it, without calling in lawyers and courts. Despite myself, I realize that I'm having fun. You don't often happen to earn nearly six months' salary in a half-hour discussion. 

There are backsides, of course. I'm comparing the situation with the end of a story with a girl, a long tome ago. The feeling is quite the same. I find myself humming without reason Dove sto domani, a song by my favorite band, The Pooh. And, incidentally, at that time I was writing a lot too. For me the act of writing has always been cathartic. Today I'm writing here,  at that time I used to wrote on Live Space...

November 6, 2015

D - ???

I ask my father and his wife to come for dinner and tell them what's happening. The cat is finally out of the bag. I try to sweeten, explain, illustrate, tell them the package is enough to allow me to carry on for more than a few months, but the reaction is what I expected. He's old school, my father. He worked a lifetime in one company, starting as a blue collar and ending a manager, and ended his career as a production manager in another small company, but only because he was hunted. The outplacer role, moreover, leaves him somewhat puzzled, and it takes a degree of effort on my side to explain him what an outplacer actually does (maybe because I don't really know it myself...). 

I know that in the coming weeks I will receive several unsolicited advice on how to manage my future career... It 's his way to help, and I appreciate it.