It’s Friday and it was a great day. Not too warm, a little nippy in the morning but the day progressed into a near perfect spring day. Bill was at his folks last night, I watched The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, then the Office marathon with Andy Barker PI in the middle of all that. I didn’t get much of a chance to watch Andy Barker PI since I was on the phone with Christina, my former assistant at Wanker Banker. She was telling me about her hard times at Wanker Banker which is fast resembling a ship that is slowly sliding into the briny.

I tried to get her spirits up but she does have quite a struggle on her hands being a single mother and working with someone who doesn’t do a thing to help out each and every day. I watched the rest of The Office marathon after the nearly hour long phone call. I decided to stay up and watch the Daily Show to see what their take on Karl Rove doing his dance of the dough boy at some dinner in Washington DC. It was worth staying up for. After that I went to sleep only to wake up at 4:32, dehydrated and with a killer headache, though not from drinking because I didn’t have a drop of the drink.

I woke up and had some water and went to sleep again, sleeping about ten minutes more than I should have but it was ok as everything was in order, I showered, and had some coffee but no cereal since I didn’t have enough milk. But I did take two ibuprofen gelcaps. I checked my emails and soon was at the bus stop where the driver actually waited for me. I think I had a driver kicked off the Hoboken route a few weeks ago when I filed a complaint about me slipping and sliding trying to catch a bus that was in a hurry to get to a red light. I hadn’t seen him since I filed that complaint and I don’t miss him.

I made it into the office on time even after stopping off at Smilers to get my egg sandwich from West Indian Tony who always asks about “my man”, Bill. He keeps insisting that Bill should do the Apollo theater and I haven’t the heart to tell him that the Apollo doesn’t put on plays anymore if they ever did. Maybe shows like Beauty Shop or the latest Tyler Perry extravaganza featuring his drag character Medea.

President Naomi was the only one in the office and almost immediately asked to see me. I had no excuse to postpone it so I walked up to her as she told me that the counteroffer part of the website was a joke. I know she didn’t believe but I think she had the hope that I would say, ‘really? Ok, I’ll stay.” Deep down inside she knew that it wasn’t to be. I tried reassuring her that we’ll still be friends and I would try to direct any staffing needs to her and she basically told me to send those staffing needs to Wally. Basically I’m now a lame duck. Not much for me to do, no point in me getting involved with long term projects since I am on a timetable to withdraw myself.

The day flew by and I had a plan to meet with Brenda, another former Wanker Banker employee. We met outside of Grand Central Station and chatted. She was so happy to see me and noticed that I was looking like a great weight had lifted off my shoulders due to Greg Stevens. I told her if there was an opening for an executive assistant with Greg that I would let her know it since now she seems to be rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It was a brief meeting as we sat outside and watched commuters go in and out and looked at young workers in their suits and ties and office attire hanging out being boisterous in an outdoor cafe bar on a nice Friday evening.

I’m going to see Arcade Fire with brother Frank one week and then Bjork with Juan the next week at Radio City in May.

It’s Thursday again. Yesterday was a good day and ended on a very positive up note. I wandered around midtown after meeting Greg Stevens and Vivek. I floated more than wandered actually and had a nice Padron 5000 cigar. I called up Bill when I found that the job could be mine if I wanted it. Brenda, former colleague from Wanker Banker was also on the list of people to call. Annemarie would have to wait since she’s 3 different time zones away. Bill was on his way to rehearsal so he promised to listen to my story when he got home later last night.

I just chilled out at home, watched Daily Show and Colbert Report and then I don’t remember since I was waiting for Lost. That came on and I thought it was going to be a drag but wound up better than I expected. Bill came in at the last ten minutes and after the show I told him about Greg and Vivek and their offer. Bill was insisting that I tell them at Golden Staffing immediately that I’ll be out of there. Bill was a lifeline when I felt like crap on Monday and knew it was because of the job.

It’s not a bad job, but it takes it’s toll, just sitting there seeing people applying for jobs that I feel that I should be trying to get for myself. I told Bill I was going to hold off on telling them at work that I was going to be leaving. I was planning on giving them two weeks notice which seemed the proper thing to do. As the day progressed today I was a bit apprehensive about telling them but felt it was the thing to do right after lunch. I sent Wally an email asking him to find time to talk to me.

I was hoping it would wait but almost instantly he came up to me and asked me what was going on. He expected that I was having a problem with someone in the office, and was surprised when I told him I was leaving. He asked why, what happened and I told him nothing happened, just a better paying opportunity came up with a former manager that I used to work with.. He understood and was sorry to see me go and asked that I give them two weeks notice to which I agreed as that was the plan anyhow.

A few minutes later President Naomi called me into her office where Wally was sitting with her. She looked genuinely upset. She wanted to know why I was leaving and I put it as delicately as possible. I told her I wanted to go out on good terms and I could see tears welling up in her eyes. Last night they had let Swati go, and she had started a few weeks before me. It went badly with Swati crying as she left the office. I missed that since I left early. I don’t know the reason why she was let go but I don’t think they gave her enough of a chance to learn the ropes as a recruiter.

Naomi asked how much I was going to get from the new job and I told her and to my surprise she made a counteroffer. In the back of my mind I remembered one of the web pages I proofread on the company website which is here:

Counteroffers
You should never accept a counteroffer.
Though flattering, a counteroffer is usually a short-term solution. Generally, the reasons for wanting to leave the company still exist and are unlikely to change in the near term. Counteroffers are self-serving to the company and often represent a compromise in your next raise or bonus. Moreover, your loyalty may be questioned and you could be the first to go should business cycles change. Truly you should be suspect as to why you are more valuable today than you were yesterday and only after you resigned your job. You should thank the company for the offer but be clear about your intentions to move on.

Those are Naomi’s words posted for the world to see on the website. And here she was, making me a counteroffer. I told her I would take it under consideration, but I think she knew that I was actually going to go. I tried to alleviate the situation by telling her that I might be in a position to hire staffers through Golden Staffing but she didn’t seem to care. I also told her that I was being pursued, and not the other way around. She just sat there, teary eyed and telling me that she didn’t want me to go and that just set a pall on the rest of my day.

I’m still leaving and I sent Greg Stevens an email telling him that I would start on April 16.