Flying visit

I needed to pop over to my substantive department to get them to start working on a specific task.

At first my ID badge wouldn’t let me in the department. How rude, I’ve only been gone a week! I set an individual off on the task required but needed to hang about to check he’d understood everything properly.

I decided to kill a bit of time by having a wander about and say hello to a few people. It was interesting how many of them didn’t respond. Even when I joked that I’d only been gone a week had they forgotten me already, only one person responded.

Now, I could take it personally, as a slight that they feel abandoned, or ignored themselves, but given that some of them hardly spoke to me when I was there before, I won’t take it to heart.

I went and sat in my old office for a while, which now feels a bit desolate and empty. I stared at the walls that I had put photographs my daughter had taken on, that were now bare. The photographs are now on the wall over my home office desk instead, no room in the new office.

Already I felt like a bit of an outsider. It brings into stark reality that everyone is replaceable and life goes on. I’ve never felt that I’m irreplaceable and have in fact tried to foster a culture that is not reliant on one single person to make it function.

I’ve always tried to encourage staff to have the confidence to make decisions for themselves, or at least know where to go to for help. I don’t want to be the bottleneck to progress, nor the sort of person who is unwilling to share knowledge in a vain attempt to hold some power over others, or some misguided sense of superiority, or feel threatened by someone else knowing more than me.

Information is for sharing. Knowledge is for those that want it. The team will move on without me and I shall always blow their trumpet.