Other stuff

Friday was the last day for another of the copy controllers at work (technically, that's three in as many weeks). More specifically, another of the good ones. Sure, she'd started going a bit off the rails toward the end, but one can't really blame her when the end was in sight for her.

I'd got a cool leaving gift for her - a joint gift with our boss - the 'Blaster Black' version of the Soundwave MP3 player. She was a massive Soundwave fan, or so she claimed. The gift certainly went down well, and drew many jealous glances from other members of staff. Our IT guy in particular, looked quite pained by the sight of it, as he said Soundwave was "the only one I didn't have as a kid". Aw, bless.

Her speech was fairly restrained - much tempered and cut down by her own account - and yet it said much about the state of the company when she arrived and as she left. I do wonder, however, if the reading from 'The Book of Karl' was way above most of their heads. Most would probably not know who Karl Marx was. At best, they might guess he was one of the Marx Brothers.

I must also confess that I was a little flustered by the glowing praise I received in her speech. I knew she enjoyed my deadpan humour, but hadn't realised there had been that much of it to warrant such a mention. It was also satisfying that what I'd taught her of Photoshop and Quark had been of use. My only real regret, as I told her later, was that I didn't get to work with her more... She was the only copy controller we've had (so far) who managed our largest magazine single-handed. While I sometimes had my doubts about her based on the company she kept, that cannot detract from her sterling performance. If only she hadn't been such a foul-mouth, and prone to such daft outbursts. That said, if I'd been her Production Manager, I might have got her to shut up once in a while...

As my boss and I extricated ourselves from the festivities (at the point where the core group were beginning to move on from the on-site bar to the favoured place back in Notting Hill), one of the remaining copy-controllers pulled us aside and informed us - rather sweetly - that we are the reason people stay as long as they do. We keep things going. We make things work.

Ironically, this view is the opposite of that which the recently-departed Senior Designer tried to put across. Nice to see it hadn't been working more recently.

Also nice to be vocally recognised as part of the reason anything actually gets done in that place.

I can't help thinking she'd regret gushing so much once she'd sobered up... but I'm not sure how much she'd actually had to drink... Perhaps she was just being sweet.