1057: "Get Less Competition From the Clock up on the Wall"

This post's title is a phrase from a song from the great philospher Jimmy Buffett's song Blue Guitar on the album called Far Side of the World.  Rest assured, Parrothead tendencies are a topic for an entirely different blog.  However, the point is sound: like an opponent, we are constantly challenged by time - how we use it, how we save it, and how we manage it.

Today, I saw a colleague who has for the last few months, worked just one floor above me.  We used to work in another building, interacting on sometimes a daily basis.  Then today, we cross paths for the first time (in a very long time), in spite of being just one floor away.  This has caused me to think about the changing relationships in a company over time.

Our previous environment was much more casual in nature.  No, not the dress code (although some people occasionally stretched that interpretation), but the atmosphere.  Many long-time colleagues working together can cause a family feeling.  Together, we've gone through marriages, divorces, births, deaths, graduations and countless other life events.  Events that bind a group together.  Any sort of celebration was a cause for a food day and let me tell you: we knew how to eat.

But times change.

Now add to the life events shown above such as regular job changes, retirements, layoffs and a divisional relocation across the country.  What binds above, breaks below.  Many people moved during the relocation, many did not, and some left the company.  A big part of the family was broken up.  I left over a year ago on an unrelated job change, but I was affected by way of "leaving the family."  Seeing my friend today brought back feelings of the old days.

In other posts, I've talked about time being an ally.  Invest early, save for retirement, drink pina coladas on a tropical island.  Here, it is an enemy.  Time can change an environment ever so slowly that it takes seeing a long lost friend to snap you back.  Only then, do you realize time has changed dramatically, one tick at a time.

Moral to this story:  stay in touch with friends.  Don't let the day-to-day cause you to lose your battle with the clock up on the wall.