Exiting work

This was the crocodile closest to the canoe so needed a bit of effort.

My replacement was advertised globally but the selected candidate came from within my team. This made the handover relatively straightforward and was done by Xmas 18. For the last quarter is was able to wind down with some interesting project work which was perfect. Sal waited until I was about to retire before securing her sabbatical. A sabbatical rather than resignation offered a good safety net should things not go to plan in the next 12 months or so 🙂 

At the end of March 2019, I, along with with two other retiring colleagues were afforded the most amazing retirement bash with family, friends, colleagues and customers up the 34th floor of the BT Tower. It was really ace. The food and drink flowed, the views were amazing and the extremely generous momento’s and words spoken will act as a constant reminder. What a night.. and it continued with family back at the flat into the wee hours.

I shall be eternally grateful for that bash and even more so for the 40 + years of interesting, worthwhile, challenging and dare I say it, fun, employment with the GPO and latterly BT. 

I’ll really miss the people I worked with in the company and wider community. I’ll also really miss what we and i did but the time was definitely right for a change.

Sal’s sabbatical was triggered in March 2019. It came and went in a flash. A year on from my retirement everything was broadly going to plan and so in the middle of March 2020 (13th to be precise) Sal formally resigned and left Accenture after 27 years. Leaving straight from a sabbatical meant it didn’t get marked in any way by the company, which is sad, but we had a few drinks and a nice meal to mark it in our own way.

We were fully on our own four feet now.