What did the systems analyst say to the television producer? I love it when you call me Big Data.
Happy Path is what happens when a 20-year broadcasting career is cut short and opportunity comes knocking in the guise of a charismatic boss who leads...
When we returned from lunch, it was almost two o'clock. Also, it was the last day of October and Diwali had been the day before. This meant the office was awash in candy and I actually had a bag of treats at my desk that I was hoping would entice people to drop by and say farewell.
Because of all the merriment and candy, there was a fair amount of socializing between two and four, including some time spent with a couple of fellow PCOs that I'd become friendly with over the summer. I was actually going to miss those guys and was glad we'd exchanged personal information. One hugged me and it felt really good. Like he'd miss me, too.
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By late afternoon, I was still addressing work issues and performing handover tasks. I hadn't even tackled the personal stuff yet. In an effort to solve what could have been a real problem with the new PCO's access, I met with someone from the team that handled contracts. Steven had been answering my myriad questions with patience and a deep well of knowledge since my first week at The Bank. He was one of a handful of contacts that had truly saved me from mental collapse time and again. In the course of our work-related chats, we'd gotten to know a little more about each other, but we always talked on Lync. On my last day, he came over to my desk in person to help me solve one final issue.
"Excuse the scruff," Steven said as he squeezed in next to me at my cubicle. I assumed he was referring to his beard, which he could have grown at any point over the eleven months since I'd seen him last. "Is it okay if I set up here?" He had his laptop with him, which he placed on the little bit of free space at my desk.
"Of course. Don't worry about the paperwork," I said, referring to the piles strewn across most of the area. "It's all going in the garbage shortly, anyway."
We started work on the outstanding contracts that were giving me a headache. One of the many new bank systems included a hiring program. A consolidated effort would be made for onboarding contractors, which meant the old system would be defunct the day after I left. Actually, that's not entirely true. The old system would continue to be used by a certain select, shall we say unyielding, set of vendors. The rest of the vendors would be migrated to the new system. Because of this divide, my team's contracts-in-progress were in limbo between the old and new operating systems.
I'd managed to strong-arm my replacement Carter's contract through the old system, avoiding further delay. Actually, that's not entirely true. What I'd done was pushed to have one of his two contracts continue through the old system until it was published. However, that only covered the week-long handover that was coming to an end. His new, three-month contract had been switched over to the new system, which wasn't active until the first day of November. And that meant it couldn't be initiated until the day after I left. Initiation was a far cry from publication and I somehow hadn't realized all this until late in the afternoon of my last day. I'd basically set up my replacement for failure. In all likelihood, he'd be locked out of the office on the first day he took over the position.
