Pictures: Click to view.
I am a fairly shy person, not wallflower shy, but shy. This may sound like an odd statement from someone who is posting this publically, but when it comes to personal praise or making personal statements I can become very reserved. I would much rather plan a party or an event than receive one. With that said, Randy, Michelle and Elaine did a great job of organizing a memorable going away event for my tenure at Franklin Templeton Investments which officially ended September 27, 2006 (also my sister Julie's birthday).
Exit interviews are always interesting. The questionaire has to be generic enough to cover the basics of an employee from any business unit and theoretically captures information that might be useful for retaining other employees in the future. Oddly, they used a four tiered likkert scale, which if you indicated that something was "satisfactory" indicated an "issue." After five years of being told that a "3" (i.e. satisfactory) was meeting expectations, it was interesting that that rating was a red flag. Hmm. I would suggest a item in the scale for the middle of the road folk like myself who didn't want to be a negative Nancy but wanted to indicate that some of the items were not above and beyond my wildest expectations! However, it is not my form, nor is it my scale, nor will I leverage the outcomes to change anything ... so basically, it is not my issue.
Anyway, my send off was very special. Instead of the normal farewell cake, the organizers opted to meet after work at the 750 ML is a wine bar in San Mateo, where you can get a card and a glass and choose from the wine selection. To enjoy a glass or wine or a tasting, simply insert your card, push a button and voila! Your wine is poured into your glass. Interesting concept to say the least. I left the office and met Randy, Elaine and Michelle, who handed me a pre-loaded card! Yeah. About 20 people showed up to wish me well and I was really lucky that many of my colleagues from our Rancho Cordova office were on site and able to drop by. Elaine brought cheese, grapes and crackers so the event seemed perfect. Frank even took the train down from SF after he got off work ... which I appreciated.
It was a memorable evening and I will truly miss seeing my friends and colleagues. And after that wonderful evening, I went back to adjust some of my "satisfactory" items to "good," which is probably a better reflection of my rewarding experience at FTI.
