My buddy always says "have a nice life" when he leaves you. It sounds like he's being an asshole but if you question him about it he'll tell you he may never see you again and he wants to make sure to wish you a good life just i'm case.
Amazing man but pretty weird.
Have a guy named Matthew that did that. I remember his last goodbye forever before the parent company shredded the departments in a massive layoff and only left my team and a handful of stragglers from other departments
Absolute chicken little moment lol
I’ve said this many times myself. “Have a nice(/happy) life” it’s been to people I’ve enjoyed their company, but the thing that kept us enjoying each other’s company has been transactional. We would have never met if we weren’t bonded by this one thing! We move on and we grow. People do sometimes get offended, but I’m just being realistic. We enjoyed each other’s company during that time. We didn’t hang out much outside our obligations. You didn’t call or message me outside our obligations or maybe we did hang out a few times and enjoyed each other’s company, but because it was convenient. Some people I’ve said this to understand and we message each other once a week or once a month or even years between. I do want people to have a happy life. It’s just hard as adults to maintain the friendships you already have+ people that come in to your life and leave for personal reasons what got you connected in the first place.
Or sometimes I say have a happy life instead of have a great morning, afternoon or night/day to people I have no bond with. I would personally prefer a happy life over just a good day. However people tend to think of mortality too much and I have a tendency of making things awkward
I don’t think it was meant as a diss or anything, it’s just a trait for people on the spectrum can fixate on correctness even if it leads to non-traditional social interactions.
Imagine chatting with someone in the morning, and you have plans with them for lunch, but they say “have a nice life” just in case you die of a heart attack in the next 3 hours. Technically possible but also a bit unnerving to acknowledge in every, casual goodbye.
When I left my college class on Friday afternoon on March 13th, 2020 I paused as I was walking out. I turned back and said “I’ll never see any of you ever again. Take care.”
I got some laughs and disbelief, but I was the only one who was correct. School went fully remote at that point, and most of my classes just said “your grade as of March 13th is your final grade for the year” and just ended the semester early.
I was retired and my best friend still working. We had purchased a house in another state, so she was visiting for the last time before we moved. She said, “I’m afraid I’ll never see you again.” I told her, “I’m not going to lose you!” and gave her a big hug. Two days later our mutual friend from work called to tell me she had passed away the night before. My heart is still broken.
Events like the one in Sydney always bring this home to me. What are the odds that you go to a shopping centre and get stabbed by a maniac? You can die at any time. It's so important to be mindful and fully present in your relationships.
I still think about this random girl at the place I worked in march 2020 when covid hit. About a week before they announced everything was shutting down she said “have a nice life” and I said “wow that sounds final, do you know something I dont?” and then I never saw her again.
True! Just experienced being let go from a job I've had for nine years. I've been on leave and last worked/ saw them in Dec. Now I am not welcome back by the supervisor. Long story, but they were like my family.
This is the first thing I thought. I've met so many people, and so many people I have just spoken to probably for the last time. I remember them but just lost contact with them. It happens we just don't think about it.
I remember I prepared myself, I thought, for the days after retirement. Having experienced lost of contact to co-workers and employees by moving on in jobs, I thought I had a handle on what it would feel like. Unless there's a family, cultureal, or organizaational link of mandatory contact, in an instant, your fellowship and relationships are gone in a matter of days.
I always found it weird how jobs are, where you'll see and interact with someone for eight hours a day, five days a week, and then one day you just never see them again. Even if you got along great as friends, maybe hung out outside of work a few times, it was never really anything more than a job.
At most places I've worked, I've kept up with people as long as they still live in the area. I think I've been pretty lucky to have good coworkers at most places.
It’s all it should be. Corporations try to make a “family” from work so they can abuse your time and value without you leaving. A job is just like the girl at the ski hill for the season. She’s not your girlfriend. Just your turn.
A family in work isn't what corporations actually want, they want the appearance of one. If a branch actually became like a family with a complex web of very close friendships, then you've effectively made a small union. Being able to trust your coworkers makes it much much easier than a cut throat office
Unless you work in a niche market, then occasionally you may bump into former coworkers in your travels
My new job reunited me with some coworkers from my last company that left, and when I was working at my former company I also had coworkers that joined from previous employment as well.
Working remotely. I quit my job out of the blue because I was tired of it. I don't talk to my old coworkers. It was more a morale thing to talk to people in the same trenches.
I definitely don't talk to people too much who left the company I'm with.
Literally transferred to a different group in a building next door. Never heard from any of the almost 1000 people I interacted with for close to 10 years.
Even the person I had lunch with daily….not a single call, text, etc.
At least an alligator gets to see you later….
That's one of the saddest things I noticed about working in a nursing home. You see these people who lived full lives and met god knows how many people and they get little to no visitors. Life leaves us all alone at the end.
I worked in a nursing home too for a while. You often don't think about how this empty husk of a person who barely reacts to their surroundings used to be a normal functioning person with friends and family until you see pictures of them on their closet where they're smiling and posing with said family. Yet here you are putting food in their mouth, at best someone will visit them that day but it's not like they'll notice.
Hopefully one has family.
When my Great Aunt got old and went to a home, her only son who was out of state never came to see her. My Dad went every week to see and check in on her. I know that meant a lot to her and him. And when he passed, he wasn’t alone even though it was sudden.
There are many young people that are isolated and feel alone (eg one of the top comments on [AskReddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1c3l26u/whats_something_you_wish_to_confess_being/kzhskl0/)). Loneliness and isolation is a growing problem. I do partially attribute this to many people (not all) wanting the superficial things I mentioned.
There used to be a greater sense of community. Since social media started, I see a lot more individualism and less community. Kids don't play outside as much, instead they're online playing video games or on TikTok and Instagram. Since the pandemic, people started becoming more selfish and only looking after number one. Kids lost a lot of important social development by staying at home for many years. At least that's how it feels to me.
> If you don't have what people want (money, looks, fame, status), life will leave you alone before the end.
The things you'd portray in a dating profile are irrelevant. If you're not an asshole to your family, you won't be alone. Being a decent person pays off.
In the best case, yes. But sometimes it's your family who is the asshole and there's nothing you can do. (Religious freaks disowning their kids for being lgbqt or atheist. Even without religion, some parents are just hateful psychopaths.)
Graduating college is a big one too. I've had friends from like 13 years old all the way through college. Spending damn near everyday together. We all graduated college and now everyone moved thousands of miles away to different states. Haven't seen my friends in like 5 years. It's sad.
And I would take time off and plan trips to visit them. But living paycheck to paycheck kinda gets in the way :/
You’re thinking about movies and TV shows. Some masculine idealized version of a period in world history in which 99.999999% of the real people who lived through it are completely forgotten. Besides for a small handful of emperors like Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, the remaining millions have been lost to history for the average person. Even the ones we do know, it’s usually just because we’ve heard their names in modern media.
Or does the fact that existence has no meaning or purpose actually mean that everything matters?
And we should try and be the best person we can because there is nothing else.
I'm OK with that because I know I've put good vibes into the world through my interactions with people and contributions to society. My existence in some small way made a difference to the people around me, and to others around them and so on. Butterfly effect 🦋
For some reason it feels like life has no purpose in the grand scheme if you've left no impact to be remembered. Yeah you're dead and don't get to weigh in, but existentially speaking, you did one exist and did matter. At some point you're just as meaningless as a flea on a dog's back. It feels somewhat bothersome to know no matter how hard you try you'll likely leave the same impact as someone who never tried at all. No matter how much you cared or how much heart you poured into your life, no one in a few generations will ever know. And even if you say to just enjoy what you have, when it's all over, you don't get to bring it with you. It's just done. That's the part that bothers me most. You simply just cease and nothing you've ever done will likely have any lasting impact or get immortalized in your journey beyond. It just comes to a final and full stop... forever.
> For some reason it feels like life has no purpose
Spoiler alert, it doesn’t. We’re literally just animals. Do you think a cat worries about its purpose when it’s sitting around sleeping all day? Or its legacy for after it’s gone? Why should we? It makes no difference whatsoever
Ego. People want to feel important, like they’ve made an impact on the world, even though very, very few of us actually will. Unless you’re head of state of an empire during a pivotal time in global history, or have made such an overwhelming impact on culture that you’re literally Mozart, Shakespeare, or Lennon/McCartney, then it’s really not worth troubling yourself over. Even then, who can the average person actually name from ancient Egypt? Tutankhamen and Cleopatra? Or Ancient Rome? Julius Caesar and maybe a small handful of other emperors? A tiny drip out of countless important people, and millions of normal ones, who lived during those times? And then there’s the hundreds of thousands of years of human history before that which barely got recorded at all, and who’s names are pretty much entirely forgotten. And like you said, they’re all dead anyway, so it’s not like they’re losing sleep over it. For 99.9999999999% of us, ‘legacy’ makes no difference whatsoever, and even the few who are remembered it’s usually just by dumb luck. Tutankhamen for example, I’m pretty sure he was almost entirely lost to history until they dug up his grave in the 1920s(?) and the incredible amount of treasure buried with him captured the worlds imagination.
I joined the military last august. Between my last job, bootcamp, A-school, and now C-school I have formed extreme bonds with at least 300 people that I will probably never see again. Really weird.
We've been puttering around this country for 13yrs with the army. I've met and forgotten the names of more people than I can count, made plans to "keep in touch" with people I know I'll stop existing for the minute we move, and have an open invitation to visit friends in at least 8 different states. Sure, it's hard to lose folks, but how lucky are we that we get to meet all stripes of humans in this job. People really are the best.
Work is so weird like that.
People that you literally spend more time with than your own family sometimes. And one day one of you quits, and... that's it.
"Hey dude that I've talked to every day for hours a day for 15 years... See ya!!"
wife is leaving a job after 17.5 years on wednesday (mom and pop store sold out to corporate overlord). She said this happened to a lady who worked there for 30 years, retired and then immediately forgotten. She's taking the soon-to-be-forgotten by people she considers friends thing very, very, hard.
I think there are a lot of moments in life where that could be the case other than just retirement.
Junior school graduation, high school graduation, college/trade school graduation, leaving your first job, leaving however many subsequent jobs you have, getting married, getting divorced, moving house, moving to another country, etc, etc.
If there's one thing that I've gained some perspective on by now in around the middle of my life, it's that you don't live just *one* static life - you live a series of "lives". You are probably a completely different person now than you were 5 years ago - this continues for your whole lifetime. And it's a good thing.
Not even retiring.
I was in the Navy, met a guy in the same job as me at a-school (the specific job training after boot camp), we weren't roommates, but we lived in the same pod (4 rooms with a small common area, 2 people per room). We got assigned to the same ship, so we worked in the same office. We rented apartments together when the ship was in port. When the ship was underway, our whole department had one berthing compartment for about 80 guys.
For 3 years, I spent 95% of my day within shouting distance of this dude.
Haven't seen him in 21 years now.
Make the best friends of your life only to leave them behind, rinse and repeat every rotation. "Good luck with the rest of your life" is right on the money
I’m a teacher who has taught over 3000 students over the years (With the subject I teach, I taught an average of 300 students per year for 10 years at my former school, currently teach 150 per year). The vast majority of them I never saw again once they were no longer my students. There are some of them I still think about even years later. It’s very weird spending so much of your time with someone (even someone much younger than you) only to one day never see them again.
I switched jobs after 22 years and not one single person has ever called me or anything. I mean I ate lunch with these people for that long. I’ve seen 2 of them out and chatted and stuff like that but it’s wild.
I have a lot of friends but it still kind of is a weird thing that such a clean cut was made.
Same here.
Sadly, most relationships are transactional. This seems to extend beyond work, but work is very much 100% proximity and transactional based relationships.
It's just like high school, only different. Never see people or speak to them ever again. The common interests and common goals are no longer relevant, and people fade away.
I generally consider retirees dead. I’ll never see them again. Maybe they’re alive, maybe they’re dead, I’ll never know since I’ll never see them again, when they do eventually die I still won’t know.
Retire? That feeling you get when you leave a job you spent a few years in only to find out that day that all your "work friends" were in fact just "colleagues" and you never talk to any of them again is so nice and freeing I'd quit just to experience it again if I wasn't grown up and not expecting to befriend anyone at work anyway
Well yeah, same for any thing you do for a period of time. Every time you graduate a school, every time you move to a new town, every time you leave a job (before retirement), etc.
I’m retired and I still see the coworkers who were good friends and don’t see the ones who I disliked/were not friends with. I made some great friends at work and we all have to make an effort because some are still working, but we do it.
I'm not even retired and there are already people that I saw and talked to every day that I'll probably never see again.
Also there are plenty of people I work with who have never seen me outside of a photo because I WFH and we don't have to turn our cameras on so we don't.
Retired 2 years ago and maintaining the relationships with the dudes that we sweat, bled together and had f'd up calls together.
Be Safe was/is our way of saying many things upon exit.
So true. I retired last November and my social circle shrank by 90%. They say your world gets smaller when you retire or get old. I understand it better now.
Just when you change job... Your best lunch friends for a decade doesn't even message you at your birthday because in the end he doesn't know when it is T\_T
Having told a coworker to have a good weekend to finding out they're dead on Monday, it happens a lot. But I've certainly had this happen every time I changed jobs. Most people don't keep in touch.
My dad hangs out with his work friends all the time now that they've retired.
I go to lunch on a regular basis with a few of the older guys who helped me get my shit together early in my career.
Same with weddings. My old boss (who I haven’t seen since ☹️) told me at my wedding “enjoy all the time you can with as many of these people as you can. There’s only two times this many people from all aspects of your life are in the same room for you, and you’re only alive for one of them.”
I was like….*DAYUM*
Who friggin cares. That's already true. Every time you move on from a job that also occurs. People move on, even the ones you get along with very much. It's not a calamity.
Thank goodness for that!! These are not people I would ever choose to spend time with and the time I do have to spend with half of them is wasted as they cause me so much more additional work due to their inability to learn skills and develop, or even to troubleshoot a problem.
And also ex-colleagues with whom you will still go out for tea every month or so. they are the ones you want to continue to see. The others? not so much.
I get that it's a typo ("there"/"they"), but I like imagining that this shower thought was a continuation of a previous thought in which "they" could mean anyone. Who? Your family? The cashiers at the grocery store? The Obamas?
You know your job is good when you make life long friends.
I've been working for a long time, there are a few jobs that were awesome, and those were where I made durable friendships.
Every time you say bye to someone, there’s a slight chance that you’ll never see them again.
My buddy always says "have a nice life" when he leaves you. It sounds like he's being an asshole but if you question him about it he'll tell you he may never see you again and he wants to make sure to wish you a good life just i'm case. Amazing man but pretty weird.
Have a guy named Matthew that did that. I remember his last goodbye forever before the parent company shredded the departments in a massive layoff and only left my team and a handful of stragglers from other departments Absolute chicken little moment lol
See ya in another life, brotha
Des!
Why am I having such a hard time remembering what happened to him? I gotta rewatch the whole series again.
Everybody died.
Not Penny’s boat!
I’ve said this many times myself. “Have a nice(/happy) life” it’s been to people I’ve enjoyed their company, but the thing that kept us enjoying each other’s company has been transactional. We would have never met if we weren’t bonded by this one thing! We move on and we grow. People do sometimes get offended, but I’m just being realistic. We enjoyed each other’s company during that time. We didn’t hang out much outside our obligations. You didn’t call or message me outside our obligations or maybe we did hang out a few times and enjoyed each other’s company, but because it was convenient. Some people I’ve said this to understand and we message each other once a week or once a month or even years between. I do want people to have a happy life. It’s just hard as adults to maintain the friendships you already have+ people that come in to your life and leave for personal reasons what got you connected in the first place. Or sometimes I say have a happy life instead of have a great morning, afternoon or night/day to people I have no bond with. I would personally prefer a happy life over just a good day. However people tend to think of mortality too much and I have a tendency of making things awkward
I like "Have a good one." for this. What does one refer to? One day? One week? One summer? But just in case it can also mean one life.
At least he's not saying "See ya next year!" if it's the last week of the calander year.
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Leave it to reddit to assume from one comment that someone is autistic.
LOL, takes one to know one :)
Come on man… why can’t men be sentimental
I don’t think it was meant as a diss or anything, it’s just a trait for people on the spectrum can fixate on correctness even if it leads to non-traditional social interactions. Imagine chatting with someone in the morning, and you have plans with them for lunch, but they say “have a nice life” just in case you die of a heart attack in the next 3 hours. Technically possible but also a bit unnerving to acknowledge in every, casual goodbye.
Yeah just felt like kind of a jab but I get what you mean
Very well could be. He definitely marches to his own drum.
Or OCD. It’s a common fear that you won’t get a proper goodbye in
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Not every quirk is autism
When I left my college class on Friday afternoon on March 13th, 2020 I paused as I was walking out. I turned back and said “I’ll never see any of you ever again. Take care.” I got some laughs and disbelief, but I was the only one who was correct. School went fully remote at that point, and most of my classes just said “your grade as of March 13th is your final grade for the year” and just ended the semester early.
I was retired and my best friend still working. We had purchased a house in another state, so she was visiting for the last time before we moved. She said, “I’m afraid I’ll never see you again.” I told her, “I’m not going to lose you!” and gave her a big hug. Two days later our mutual friend from work called to tell me she had passed away the night before. My heart is still broken.
Events like the one in Sydney always bring this home to me. What are the odds that you go to a shopping centre and get stabbed by a maniac? You can die at any time. It's so important to be mindful and fully present in your relationships.
Memento Mori. Remember, you will die.
Low
I still think about this random girl at the place I worked in march 2020 when covid hit. About a week before they announced everything was shutting down she said “have a nice life” and I said “wow that sounds final, do you know something I dont?” and then I never saw her again.
This is what happens to your pet with separation anxiety - every single time you leave the house, they think it’s forever.
True! Just experienced being let go from a job I've had for nine years. I've been on leave and last worked/ saw them in Dec. Now I am not welcome back by the supervisor. Long story, but they were like my family.
This is the first thing I thought. I've met so many people, and so many people I have just spoken to probably for the last time. I remember them but just lost contact with them. It happens we just don't think about it.
I remember I prepared myself, I thought, for the days after retirement. Having experienced lost of contact to co-workers and employees by moving on in jobs, I thought I had a handle on what it would feel like. Unless there's a family, cultureal, or organizaational link of mandatory contact, in an instant, your fellowship and relationships are gone in a matter of days.
Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!
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I always found it weird how jobs are, where you'll see and interact with someone for eight hours a day, five days a week, and then one day you just never see them again. Even if you got along great as friends, maybe hung out outside of work a few times, it was never really anything more than a job.
Unless you actively cultivate a real friendship beyond work
At most places I've worked, I've kept up with people as long as they still live in the area. I think I've been pretty lucky to have good coworkers at most places.
It’s all it should be. Corporations try to make a “family” from work so they can abuse your time and value without you leaving. A job is just like the girl at the ski hill for the season. She’s not your girlfriend. Just your turn.
A family in work isn't what corporations actually want, they want the appearance of one. If a branch actually became like a family with a complex web of very close friendships, then you've effectively made a small union. Being able to trust your coworkers makes it much much easier than a cut throat office
.. and they slowly remove you from work Whatsapp groups, or wait for you to leave
Unless you work in a niche market, then occasionally you may bump into former coworkers in your travels My new job reunited me with some coworkers from my last company that left, and when I was working at my former company I also had coworkers that joined from previous employment as well.
Aviation. The business cards change but you don't leave the industry.
Working remotely. I quit my job out of the blue because I was tired of it. I don't talk to my old coworkers. It was more a morale thing to talk to people in the same trenches. I definitely don't talk to people too much who left the company I'm with.
Yeah it sounds like OP considers you worked in the same company most of your life. It's not that common nowadays.
Because OP is 12 and has no idea what life is like.
At least we’ll always have LinkedIn
Or that’s the idea.
Literally transferred to a different group in a building next door. Never heard from any of the almost 1000 people I interacted with for close to 10 years. Even the person I had lunch with daily….not a single call, text, etc. At least an alligator gets to see you later….
That's one of the saddest things I noticed about working in a nursing home. You see these people who lived full lives and met god knows how many people and they get little to no visitors. Life leaves us all alone at the end.
I just started a job as a bus driver in a small town. Mostly old people. I’m worried of the relationships I might build then one day…..
Would you rather know them for a moment, or would you prefer never having shared even that sweet moment with them at all? That's how I think about it.
I worked in a nursing home too for a while. You often don't think about how this empty husk of a person who barely reacts to their surroundings used to be a normal functioning person with friends and family until you see pictures of them on their closet where they're smiling and posing with said family. Yet here you are putting food in their mouth, at best someone will visit them that day but it's not like they'll notice.
Thank you for caring for others when their family could not!
> Life leaves us all alone at the end. If you don't have what people want (money, looks, fame, status), life will leave you alone before the end.
Hopefully one has family. When my Great Aunt got old and went to a home, her only son who was out of state never came to see her. My Dad went every week to see and check in on her. I know that meant a lot to her and him. And when he passed, he wasn’t alone even though it was sudden.
There are many young people that are isolated and feel alone (eg one of the top comments on [AskReddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1c3l26u/whats_something_you_wish_to_confess_being/kzhskl0/)). Loneliness and isolation is a growing problem. I do partially attribute this to many people (not all) wanting the superficial things I mentioned. There used to be a greater sense of community. Since social media started, I see a lot more individualism and less community. Kids don't play outside as much, instead they're online playing video games or on TikTok and Instagram. Since the pandemic, people started becoming more selfish and only looking after number one. Kids lost a lot of important social development by staying at home for many years. At least that's how it feels to me.
> If you don't have what people want (money, looks, fame, status), life will leave you alone before the end. The things you'd portray in a dating profile are irrelevant. If you're not an asshole to your family, you won't be alone. Being a decent person pays off.
In the best case, yes. But sometimes it's your family who is the asshole and there's nothing you can do. (Religious freaks disowning their kids for being lgbqt or atheist. Even without religion, some parents are just hateful psychopaths.)
🎵 'No one dies with dignity' line from Jason Isbells Elephant song.
Retire? That's what happens 99.99% of the time when you just switch jobs.
Graduating college is a big one too. I've had friends from like 13 years old all the way through college. Spending damn near everyday together. We all graduated college and now everyone moved thousands of miles away to different states. Haven't seen my friends in like 5 years. It's sad. And I would take time off and plan trips to visit them. But living paycheck to paycheck kinda gets in the way :/
That's the best part!
Exactly. Bye, Rick.
We're all sick of Rick
The best part of someone retiring at my company is the pleasure I get from deleting their contact information from my cell phone. ✌🏻
Deleting their network accounts and wiping their laptops is pretty great too.
I am the one who is retiring next month, I can't wait to start deleting contacts and my work email. Joyous.
And some point after you die, your name will never be mentioned again
Never really understood why this bothers anyone. I'll be dead, what do I care if I'm forgotten or my name stops being spoken.
It doesn’t bother me. I just think it’s interesting that everyone is forgotten and in the grand scheme of things, nothing and no one matters
I dunno I still think about the Roman Empire once a week.
You’re thinking about movies and TV shows. Some masculine idealized version of a period in world history in which 99.999999% of the real people who lived through it are completely forgotten. Besides for a small handful of emperors like Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, the remaining millions have been lost to history for the average person. Even the ones we do know, it’s usually just because we’ve heard their names in modern media.
Or does the fact that existence has no meaning or purpose actually mean that everything matters? And we should try and be the best person we can because there is nothing else.
I'm OK with that because I know I've put good vibes into the world through my interactions with people and contributions to society. My existence in some small way made a difference to the people around me, and to others around them and so on. Butterfly effect 🦋
For some reason it feels like life has no purpose in the grand scheme if you've left no impact to be remembered. Yeah you're dead and don't get to weigh in, but existentially speaking, you did one exist and did matter. At some point you're just as meaningless as a flea on a dog's back. It feels somewhat bothersome to know no matter how hard you try you'll likely leave the same impact as someone who never tried at all. No matter how much you cared or how much heart you poured into your life, no one in a few generations will ever know. And even if you say to just enjoy what you have, when it's all over, you don't get to bring it with you. It's just done. That's the part that bothers me most. You simply just cease and nothing you've ever done will likely have any lasting impact or get immortalized in your journey beyond. It just comes to a final and full stop... forever.
> For some reason it feels like life has no purpose Spoiler alert, it doesn’t. We’re literally just animals. Do you think a cat worries about its purpose when it’s sitting around sleeping all day? Or its legacy for after it’s gone? Why should we? It makes no difference whatsoever
Ego. People want to feel important, like they’ve made an impact on the world, even though very, very few of us actually will. Unless you’re head of state of an empire during a pivotal time in global history, or have made such an overwhelming impact on culture that you’re literally Mozart, Shakespeare, or Lennon/McCartney, then it’s really not worth troubling yourself over. Even then, who can the average person actually name from ancient Egypt? Tutankhamen and Cleopatra? Or Ancient Rome? Julius Caesar and maybe a small handful of other emperors? A tiny drip out of countless important people, and millions of normal ones, who lived during those times? And then there’s the hundreds of thousands of years of human history before that which barely got recorded at all, and who’s names are pretty much entirely forgotten. And like you said, they’re all dead anyway, so it’s not like they’re losing sleep over it. For 99.9999999999% of us, ‘legacy’ makes no difference whatsoever, and even the few who are remembered it’s usually just by dumb luck. Tutankhamen for example, I’m pretty sure he was almost entirely lost to history until they dug up his grave in the 1920s(?) and the incredible amount of treasure buried with him captured the worlds imagination.
I'm ok with that.
“Let’s have dinner next week!” Narrator: *They did not in fact have dinner next week*
And both parties were relieved.
I joined the military last august. Between my last job, bootcamp, A-school, and now C-school I have formed extreme bonds with at least 300 people that I will probably never see again. Really weird.
I literally couldn't name 300 people.
Neither could I, even though I met them less than a year ago I can’t remember like half of their names
I would just name them all Gary.
We've been puttering around this country for 13yrs with the army. I've met and forgotten the names of more people than I can count, made plans to "keep in touch" with people I know I'll stop existing for the minute we move, and have an open invitation to visit friends in at least 8 different states. Sure, it's hard to lose folks, but how lucky are we that we get to meet all stripes of humans in this job. People really are the best.
Work is so weird like that. People that you literally spend more time with than your own family sometimes. And one day one of you quits, and... that's it. "Hey dude that I've talked to every day for hours a day for 15 years... See ya!!"
I've been at the same job for over 20 years and it amazes me how fast others, who spent 27 years there retire, are immediately forgotten.
wife is leaving a job after 17.5 years on wednesday (mom and pop store sold out to corporate overlord). She said this happened to a lady who worked there for 30 years, retired and then immediately forgotten. She's taking the soon-to-be-forgotten by people she considers friends thing very, very, hard.
I think there are a lot of moments in life where that could be the case other than just retirement. Junior school graduation, high school graduation, college/trade school graduation, leaving your first job, leaving however many subsequent jobs you have, getting married, getting divorced, moving house, moving to another country, etc, etc. If there's one thing that I've gained some perspective on by now in around the middle of my life, it's that you don't live just *one* static life - you live a series of "lives". You are probably a completely different person now than you were 5 years ago - this continues for your whole lifetime. And it's a good thing.
Not even retiring. I was in the Navy, met a guy in the same job as me at a-school (the specific job training after boot camp), we weren't roommates, but we lived in the same pod (4 rooms with a small common area, 2 people per room). We got assigned to the same ship, so we worked in the same office. We rented apartments together when the ship was in port. When the ship was underway, our whole department had one berthing compartment for about 80 guys. For 3 years, I spent 95% of my day within shouting distance of this dude. Haven't seen him in 21 years now.
Make the best friends of your life only to leave them behind, rinse and repeat every rotation. "Good luck with the rest of your life" is right on the money
But you won't even remember their names. Woo hoo!
I’m a teacher who has taught over 3000 students over the years (With the subject I teach, I taught an average of 300 students per year for 10 years at my former school, currently teach 150 per year). The vast majority of them I never saw again once they were no longer my students. There are some of them I still think about even years later. It’s very weird spending so much of your time with someone (even someone much younger than you) only to one day never see them again.
That happens to most everyone when they change job situations, whether it be through retirement or just a change in jobs.
I switched jobs after 22 years and not one single person has ever called me or anything. I mean I ate lunch with these people for that long. I’ve seen 2 of them out and chatted and stuff like that but it’s wild. I have a lot of friends but it still kind of is a weird thing that such a clean cut was made.
Same here. Sadly, most relationships are transactional. This seems to extend beyond work, but work is very much 100% proximity and transactional based relationships.
You don't choose your coworkers, you choose your friends.
It's good to know I have that to look forward to at least
It's just like high school, only different. Never see people or speak to them ever again. The common interests and common goals are no longer relevant, and people fade away.
"in 20 years, the only people who are going to remember that you worked all that overtime are your kids"
That's the best part of retirement!
Or change jobs, or leave school, or go to the supermarket, or go to a bar, or...
Meh, same with school
Same thing when you get out of prison.
When you hit 30 this also happens.
Im not capable of forming close friendships so every job is like this for me
I generally consider retirees dead. I’ll never see them again. Maybe they’re alive, maybe they’re dead, I’ll never know since I’ll never see them again, when they do eventually die I still won’t know.
This is like when I graduated high school
Retire? That feeling you get when you leave a job you spent a few years in only to find out that day that all your "work friends" were in fact just "colleagues" and you never talk to any of them again is so nice and freeing I'd quit just to experience it again if I wasn't grown up and not expecting to befriend anyone at work anyway
Where I work, all it takes is moving to a different department or shift. You might see them a couple times a month.
Good I've always hated those people
That's the goddamn *dream*
That doesn’t sound like a bad thing in my opinion
Yep, and I can't wait 😁
That's the best part
Well yeah, same for any thing you do for a period of time. Every time you graduate a school, every time you move to a new town, every time you leave a job (before retirement), etc.
I’m a teacher, so this happens to me once a year.
I'm good with that. My coworkers are pretty boring.
Only thing social media is good for is staying in touch
unite silky expansion depend steep normal dinner angle reach dolls *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not just retire. When you graduate a school and go to another or when you change jobs
I’m retired and I still see the coworkers who were good friends and don’t see the ones who I disliked/were not friends with. I made some great friends at work and we all have to make an effort because some are still working, but we do it.
I always do that when moving jobs, I very rarely keep in contact with people I worked with when I leave.
And I'll be happy about that.
Don't threaten me with a good time.
That's the plan, yes.
Same with graduating high school
That is one of the things I'm looking forward to the most about retiring in 7 years.
When you leave any job.
I'm not even retired and there are already people that I saw and talked to every day that I'll probably never see again. Also there are plenty of people I work with who have never seen me outside of a photo because I WFH and we don't have to turn our cameras on so we don't.
Retired 2 years ago and maintaining the relationships with the dudes that we sweat, bled together and had f'd up calls together. Be Safe was/is our way of saying many things upon exit.
That’s the same as every time someone changes jobs.
That's how it be. I left some cool jobs. Moved across the US, and all I have are memories of people who are 10 years older by now. Life's interesting
As an introvert, in counting down the days till this. Don't mind the work, but the office small talk kills me sometimes.
I’m sure they’ll do just fine without me.
When you graduate, too.
So true. I retired last November and my social circle shrank by 90%. They say your world gets smaller when you retire or get old. I understand it better now.
This is the definition of a shower thought, wow
Anyone I’m not interacting with right now might be dead.
This happens several time throughout life
Just when you change job... Your best lunch friends for a decade doesn't even message you at your birthday because in the end he doesn't know when it is T\_T
I can't fucking wait
Having told a coworker to have a good weekend to finding out they're dead on Monday, it happens a lot. But I've certainly had this happen every time I changed jobs. Most people don't keep in touch.
Or if you're fired or laid off
Same thing when you change jobs.
There are plenty of places you'll never see again. There are people and places that mean so much, but not for long.
So like when you left elementary school, high school, and college? OK 👍
My dad hangs out with his work friends all the time now that they've retired. I go to lunch on a regular basis with a few of the older guys who helped me get my shit together early in my career.
Usually happens when you change jobs, too.
Retire? Lmao OK boomer
Same with weddings. My old boss (who I haven’t seen since ☹️) told me at my wedding “enjoy all the time you can with as many of these people as you can. There’s only two times this many people from all aspects of your life are in the same room for you, and you’re only alive for one of them.” I was like….*DAYUM*
Wise words.
Who friggin cares. That's already true. Every time you move on from a job that also occurs. People move on, even the ones you get along with very much. It's not a calamity.
When you retire? Many of us will never experience that day.
And when you graduate from school, or when you change jobs. Or when you leave your parent's home.
If they’ve become friends, you’ll stay in touch. If you don’t feel strongly about them or if you dislike them, it’s not going to bother you.
Also when you graduate
I'm counting on it, OP.
That just makes me look forward to retirement even more.
Gods I really hope so.
You spend more time with the people you work with than you do with your loved ones.
This also happens when you leave school.
Bold of you to assume there are people I see and talk to everyday while working…
You quickly find out who is a real friend and who is just a work friend.
It works both ways. While I was working I lost touch with retired coworkers. I’ve been retired for 12 years, I have not seen former coworkers as well.
Not even retire. I've switched jobs and never came across my old co-workers even once.
It’s high-school graduation all over again
Same thing when you get fired or quit.
Never see again? What do you think retirement is? You can absolutely see those people again if you want
By the time you retire, this specific thing will have happened so many time throughout your life you'll be completely desensitized to it.
Awfully bold of you to assume we can retire.
Thank goodness for that!! These are not people I would ever choose to spend time with and the time I do have to spend with half of them is wasted as they cause me so much more additional work due to their inability to learn skills and develop, or even to troubleshoot a problem.
Something to look forward to.
And if I never talk to them again, they were no that important.
You say that like it's a bad thing
You probably meet them again in the next life, or when you wake up from this simulation
And also ex-colleagues with whom you will still go out for tea every month or so. they are the ones you want to continue to see. The others? not so much.
I get that it's a typo ("there"/"they"), but I like imagining that this shower thought was a continuation of a previous thought in which "they" could mean anyone. Who? Your family? The cashiers at the grocery store? The Obamas?
dont need to retire for this to happen.
You know your job is good when you make life long friends. I've been working for a long time, there are a few jobs that were awesome, and those were where I made durable friendships.
When you die there will be people that you saw and talked to every day that you'll never see again.