There is one more certainty in London. When Friday comes around and you suddenly hear applause in the office in the late afternoon, you know someone is leaving. The "clapping" appears rather frequently during the year and peaks just after bonus. You know why.
So I was not surprised when I heard clapping in the afternoon. Well, it's Friday afternoon and someone in FX PCG seems to be leaving. Suddenly I noticed a crowd around me. Yes, the time has come for me. The day which I thought was never to come 8 months ago came. And now, time just happened to fly past me like lightning.
Unlike corporate culture in Singapore, colleagues in London pool some dough to "celebrate" the departure of a colleague and the leaving colleague in turn buys drinks at the local pub. As I was not leaving (just moving on to another department), I did not quite expect this. After all, that did not happen in my last rotation. To see 15 people gathered around me and having my boss to give a speech about my stay in the department can be quite daunting. And I have to give a speech as well. They did however buy some stuff for me, even though I had no drinks on the agenda.
A shirt from T M Lewin, hair gel and some soap bars plus a card. Weird? Yeah but it was a very nice gesture and something we can all learn from.
For some strange reasons, I hung around for a while even though it was time to go (that was what my colleagues said). Maybe when you like something, it is harder to let go.
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