Blog 4.0

Processing my feelings about my co-worker Al's death has turned out to be somewhat strange. He started work at the company about two months before I did, so we worked together for the better part of ten years. However, we didn't work in the same department, and I never got to know him beyond work either. In fact, whenever we interacted it often struck me that we were polar opposites in many ways. He was outgoing, stylish, and apparently an absolute riot at parties, while I'm a mousy introvert who's not great at socialising. While our interactions were always friendly, I never really felt that we "vibed" - which is totally fine, by the way. When we got the news of his passing though, I cried. It was just an awful situation all around, plus my waterworks get going quite easily - you bet they were going to do their thing when something of this magnitude happens! I was sitting next to another co-worker who was pretty much best friends with Al and was naturally hit...

I had only been in the office for about ten minutes today when our manager asked me and everyone else who was already in to join him in the nearest meeting room. When a member of HR I came in, I remember thinking "wow, this must be important to actually have a member of HR physically present" - what I didn't expect, what none of us expected, was to be told that the head of another department we work with had passed away over the weekend. He was only 42 years old and perfectly healthy for all anyone knew; his wife just suddenly found him dead in his bed. They have a little daughter as well. It was shocking and upsetting to all of us. The colleague sitting next to me exclaimed "What? We just messaged each other on Friday about how we were going to see each other today!" before bursting into tears. I didn't know him that well personally, but he'd been in the company for as long as I have, so we'd effectively been working together for almost ten years. H...