I expect that the departure of a co-worker can impact the remaining co-workers on any number of levels. Most of the time, when people i've worked with have moved on to other employers or positions within the company, I take it pretty much in stride. I've long held the belief that nobody should be indispensable, and an opportunity for change should be applauded and encouraged. The business moves along.
Then again, there's the rare and infrequent case in which the person has been an integral part of your time, a good friend, and come to represent a sense of familiarity and family in the work place.
So today is a melancholy day, as I find myself forced to confront the departure of such an individual, and to reflect on the many reasons, this time around, a departure is a sad occasion.
When I first began working at Apple in 1991, as a contractor, one of the tasks I recall vividly was being sent to get some network issues resolved with 'Mary Brown'. The real reason the memory is so vivid is that the journey to her office took me past the cube of one 'Ricardo Batista'. Having been a mac-geek for many years prior to joining the company, I knew his name, as i'd seen it over and over in the 'Extensions Manager' window. That moment was the pivotal moment in my employment when i realized 'holy shit... i'm actually working here'. Anyway; Mary was very pleasant, addressed my issue, gave me my answers and sent me on my way.
The initial exchange was the same you've probably had over and over in your own careers; there's somebody somewhere you interact with once or twice and that's all you might recall. 10 years down the line you could hear from a close co-worker about that person having move to another role, having a baby, or some other milestone, and you'd struggle to place a face to the name. Sadly, that seems to be the majority of the case with myself and those 'one off' interactions. Fortunately though, that was not the situation in this case.
Fast fwd a couple of years, I've become an employee, moved to another building, and I'm one of the core team members that helped bring about some significant enhancements to the manufacturing processes. As the group grows, Mary joins the team and we end up working together. I come to appreciate her sense of humor and ability to focus on core tasks, but still don't really have any continuous daily interaction. The group grows, changes buildings, positions morph and evolve, and one day.... we have an offsite that changes my management and impacts my life in numerous ways, professionally and personally, up to this very day.
The focus of the offsite was an exercise in personality profiling, and I believe the Myers Briggs test was a part of it. At the time, I was having a difficult time striking a harmonious chord with my current management. At the end of the exercise, as we went through the profiles and all moved to circles of those we should be most compatible with in working situations, the results indicated i was completely at odds with the profile of my current manager, and fit perfectly within Mary's team. Shortly thereafter, with minimal fanfare, I was reporting to Mary, and loving it. I was on my Mary way.
Mary had a hard act to follow. I'd been managed by some of the best: Jon Fuelleman set the bar very high from the start, having kept staff lively with encoded subjects written on the white board in the form of cultural references, film titles or song lyrics, and having coined the 1-on-1 parting statement of 'Ready, Set, Grow'. Cheryl Thomas was an equally awesome manager, with the right balance of focus and fun it took to rally and grow such a dynamically expanding business operation. But somehow i knew that Mary would be just as good, and in retrospect, the prior were just warm up acts for the headliner she was to be.
After a year or two under her leadership, she broke the news that she'd accepted an internal opportunity and moved on to work in the Web Products team. I stayed behind, doing databases and automation engineering, and having a couple of managers do their best to motivate me. But i'd burned out in many ways, and needed something exciting and new. That came in the form of an opportunity Mary presented to me, being to come and join her in the Web Products team, doing Program Management work, while also addressing the true motivation, her need for a database driven solution to manage the very complex data her team juggled daily.
Fast forward a couple years later, mid-2001, the height of the hype of the dot-com boom, and I left Apple to strike out on my own. And I did.... strike out, that is. The boom went 'boom' about the time i started working on Confoti. But along the way, Mary was able to arrange to keep my 'foot in the door' by offering me a contract position, and for some time after my leaving Apple, I'd return once every week or two for a few hours of bug fixes and database development.
During this time, she had two children. At once. Twins. A boy and a girl. As I worked by her side during those recurring contracting visits, I got to ride along with the ups and downs, and in many ways, confront and conquer many of my own fears and doubts around parenting. About a year or so after her pregnancy, we had two children. At once. Twins. A boy and a girl. Imagine that. The day she found out, the genuine expression of excitement and enthusiasm she gave was the greatest that i'd experienced outside of our family and remains a treasured memory. And her example and shared experience had helped me to be a better husband throughout the journey, and a better parent as well.
When we decided to leave the valley, I got a call from Mary to come have lunch at Apple. Just a day or so beforehand I found a job posting at Apple in Folsom, where we were moving. I printed it out, stuck it in my pocket and went to lunch, to ask her for her help in contacting the hiring manager. It turns out that she had an opening back in her team, was curious if I was interested, but understood our decision to leave, and helped me get ahold of the Folsom contact that eventually got me the position at PowerSchool.
Less then a year later, when it was evident that the relocation was not working out for us, I called her from my office to tell her we were heading back and, perhaps, were there still any opportunities in her team? A moment's silence was followed by the fact that she'd just made a formal offer to another candidate for the position that i'd declined during that lunch many months back. Although I'd just missed out on that opportunity, shortly thereafter, she contacted me about a Web Developer/Project Manager position within her manager's team. All said and done, Mary was pivotal in helping me find my way back into Apple via Folsom, and then back into Cupertino when we returned.
It's staggering to realize that I've known her for 15 years, at least 10 of which I can say I've known her well. During those 10 years, she's been a constant presence in both my personal and my career growth. She helped me grow in the role as a Project Manager, and in return i taught her the ropes of database development. She has always been approachable, direct, honest, honorable, sincere and very generous, as a friend, co-worker and manager. I'm so proud to have had the opportunity to know her and work beside her, and to call her my friend.
It won't be the same without her here, and it would not be what is is today for me, had she not been here to make it so.
Footnote: The icon used for this post... being 'Puffy', the dog from the movie 'There's Something About Mary', has it's own significance. When I left the company in 2000, I had it in my office, and I gave it to her to keep. Then, as I worked as a contractor, i'd sit directly beneath it on the shelf above. When she was packing to leave I asked that if she was not taking it, I'd like to have it for sentimental value. It's now sitting on the shelf in my office, watching me append this blogpost.
Stay Pufffy, Stay.
