Yesterday was my last day with HP. Alright, it was not as joyful as I would want it to be. I wanted it to be as low profile as it could be. My closer bunch of colleagues planned for a farewell lunch, with Jacky coming early before his shift starts. We could never guess that Boss suggested the same thing. She wanted to go earlier, at 12pm so that they can make it back for a 2pm meeting.

I was seriously hoping Jacky would come in after 1pm but unfortunately he came super early. We asked him to go hide somewhere so that Boss will not see him and still believing that we are waiting for Jacky. But… it was too late when Boss came back from morning meeting and saw him. “Let’s go,” she said.

Okay, lunch with her was not that bad actually. This made it bad. Before going, she stood in front of my desk (Raymond’s actually), while looking left and right, at Jacky’s and Gan’s direction and said, “Today is your last day ya. So you got to decide where and what to eat.”

“Anything will do,” I responded. While trying to act cute and looking at Jacky, she asked “Is there any shops called ‘Anything’? No, right?”

“Yes, there is. In Singapore, I’d believed.” No idea why Jacky answered. She pissed me off and I think I blew it a little by raising my tone telling her, “Hey, seriously, we can go anywhere and eat”… in my head, of course. Lai was beside me and he sensed the anger from my face expression.

I prayed that she do nothing to piss me off again, else I’m gonna blow up for real. Sadly, she did it again. We went to Restoran 228 at Dengkil for ala-carte. She said to everyone, “She has to order everything today. So later pass the menu to her ya.” Okay, fine. I’ll play along. There were photos of 6 dishes on the main page of the menu. I looked at the waiter and told her, “Everything on this page, please.”

I was not sure if she sense it or she was just playing dumb with me. At the end, I ordered 2 dishes and the rest by Lai, as he knew I was pissed off. This was an awkward lunch.

Back in the office, I was busy clearing the stuffs in my laptop, uninstalling non-HP programs and applications; and drafting my farewell email 🙂 I packed my bag at 16:30 as I have to pass my laptop and stuffs to Helen. When Boss saw me, she insisted to leave my laptop with them. I knew what they will do with it. Coincidentally, Helen walked over and she asked her. I was so happy when Helen asked me to pass to her later.

I got Lai to tagged along as I need an escort. Once I returned my tag to Helen, I will be locked in the office. So I need Lai’s tag to get out. Out of formality, I think it is better to just tell her that I will be going and a last goodbye. Bad decision. The usual stuffs, ‘all the best’ and ‘good luck’. Kit, while typing on his keyboard, says “sure not going to think about it?” and smirked. She was around too, asked “Taken photo already?” Shit! She handed her camera to Lai. Took one with Bryan. Then she said she want one too. I had an awkward smile. Lastly, one with Lai. She asked me to go around and take photo with everyone. Seriously, that was the reason why I want to leave quietly. I am not some kind of big shot in the team and I don’t like to go around and announcing my last day.

I went down to my car to pack my laptop into its original box which I have kept for a year plus; parking sticker, transponder, ActivKey and access tag into an envelope. Then Lai and I headed to 5th floor to pass these to Helen. I think I have startled her. Before this, she came to our floor with boss and asked, “When are you planning ti come up and see me? Or you are planning to leave just like that?” She surprised me although she was just kidding. I told her I will see her after 16:30. Again, the usual stuffs but from Helen, I sensed sincerity. Before leaving, she gave me a hug *awww* and offered to get me downstairs (I have returned my access card) but I told her that I’ve brought an escort, pointing at Lai.

Goodbye HP! Hope I’ll be back one day! 🙂

What will you do first if you want to resign from your current job? You would talk to your manager, wouldn’t you? Your reporting manager, that person’s name in the box above yous, connected with a solid line. Right? I did that today, to officially initiate my so-called disengagement process.

My situation is a little different. See, I used to worked and report to Manager Selfish (Let’s call her that). Then, there was an organisational restructure and I was aligned to a new team under Manager I-Think-Right but still doing the same job for Manager Selfish. Some times later, Manager I-Think-Right did a bad job and Manager Aussie took over. She is a fine manager, as far as I’m concerned. So, even in this situation, you would still need to talk to your direct manager, right? In my case, Manager Aussie.

I need to get all these sorted out so that I can start my new job as soon as possible. I do not have the obligation to inform Manager Selfish of my resignation but since I am still doing work for her account and out of courtesy and respect, I decided to inform her. I called on her mobile as she was away on medical leave. It was fine in the beginning of the call but her tone immediately took a sharp U-turn when she knew that I have talked to Manager Aussie. She said in Mandarin, “你这样做，很不公平咧” — meaning what I did was unfair to her. I think she has forgotten that I am not her direct report anymore. But what the fuck. It’s my career for God’s sake. Why do I have to care whether this is fair or not. With the Concierge project on hold and giving us no specific time frame but just a “on hold, standby, any time”, she expect me to stay? She also said what I did made her look bad. Like I care.

Since she has such perception of me, I no longer need to be nice with her. I’ll need to prepare for her return next week.