Going. . .Going. . . Going . . .

It's been about a week and a half since the big layoffs announcement and the exits are well and truly underway. Some people send out goodbye emails, some wander around the building saying their farewells, some I don't even know they're going until they're gone. We had a kind of mass going-away party in the conference room for all the Research layoffs yesterday, with beer and food and a slide show of photos from happier times, and it was all very depressing. Maybe once you've been through a few of these you get better at it, but right now, asking people what they're going to do next, listening to myself say cliche crap like "you'll probably look back and think this was the best thing that could have happened," I don't think I want the practice. Making it worse was the fact that I wasn't totally clear on who all was going causing situations like when I was having a conversation with someone for about ten minutes before I found out she was leaving, at which point I started backpedaling like it was an Olympic even and I had a shot at a medal. So, yeah, not a fun party, but I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I can think of some people who probably enjoyed it a lot less than I did.