Last Day Emails - Part 1

If you work in an IT company, you know what I am going to talk about. And, if you work in a Company where the strength of employees is on the higher side(such as Infosys, TCS, Cognizant), then you probably would relate to this post even more. Being in an industry where people switch jobs every couple of years, brings with it many more things other than double digit salary increments. It brings along attrition in the company and many ‘Last Day’ emails. For the uninitiated, let me try and explain what does a ‘Last Day’ email typically mean. It is a medium for people to tell others that, I am leaving this company and if you need to stay in touch with me, I am sharing with you my personal contact information. Throw in a little bit of emotions and gratitude towards the company and colleagues and this completes a typical Last Day email. However, people many a times tend to go overboard and ‘Last Day’ emails are no exception.

It is quite difficult to categorize Last Day emails. So, I’ll just put them in three very Broad categories on the basis of their length. 

1. The extremely long ones – Will contain a quote or two. The guy will usually be thanking everyone he ever met during his stay in the organization and will get emotional along the way about the good times he spent in the company and how he doesn’t want to go but has to. 

2. The extremely short ones – Will contain no quotes, no mentions of anybody and no emotional stuff. It will just have their personal phone no/email id and a simple ‘Good Bye’ telling that it’s their last day with the company.

    

    3. Not too long, and not too short – These may or may not contain a quote, will try to remember the good times they had in the company, will get a little emotional and bid a good bye. But, will keep it short.

The extremely long ‘Last Day’ emails are the ones which are ‘sometimes’ the most irritating. One reason being – they are more often than not, sent to almost everyone in your Unit. Doesn’t matter if you know the person or not – but the email will land up in your Inbox on a Friday afternoon thanking every second person they may have worked with. For a moment you will think, who is this person and how does he know me? You look around and everyone has the same reaction on their faces, “Who is this guy? And why is he grateful to me for his time at this company?” Only then do you realize that nobody knows him and this a mass email sent to everybody, telling them that he is leaving the company and joining a new one. Everyone looks at each other, and collectively say – “Kaun hai be yeh banda?” (Who the hell is this guy?). The email generally starts with some senti stuff, and some big words. An excerpt from a recent email I got. (mind you just an excerpt, it was a pretty long email) –

A day like this is weird and always makes you feel sad. Weird because you're leaving something you've come to know so well to venture off into a somehow unknown future and sad because you're leaving behind loads of memories and mainly because you know you'll be missing the people, you actually spent most of your day with for over one and a half  years. I guess it's always the people you get to know, how they touch your life, the different relationships you build with them, the good times and even the not so good ones . Why did I take this step? Well, I guess, just felt the time was right to move on, all the omens were right, maybe the stars were in place too or whatever else you believe in. It just falls into my basic strategy of trying to set clearer goals in life for myself and to take the steps necessary to reach them. Moving on to something else in my career life is simply one of those steps.

 I totally understand the emotions attached with your first organization, but somehow long last day emails shot out to anybody and everybody just don't click with me.

... to be continued.