The handover document covered: all active accounts with status notes, the exception log and how to interpret it, carrier contact hierarchy for each lane, the quarterly review schedule and prep checklist, and the specific communication preferences of our ten largest clients.
The Alder section was fourteen pages.
I gave it to Luke. He read it, or appeared to read it, and said it was thorough. I asked if he had questions. He had a few, which I answered. I asked about the next Alder quarterly review. He said he’d be leading it, which was correct, and that he was planning to bring Jana in for support.
Jana is excellent with documentation. She is less experienced with client-facing exception management. I mentioned this. Luke said they’d figure it out as they went.
I handed back my laptop. I handed back my access badge. Our IT person, Marcus, was apologetic about the access revocation in the way of someone who finds the administrative choreography of dismissals personally uncomfortable. I told him it was fine. He deactivated my email, my system access, my remote login, the carrier portal credentials, all of it. All correct and proper and exactly what should happen.
I drove home for the last time as an employee of Morgan Freight Coordination on a Thursday afternoon in September.
My apartment, which I had furnished gradually over eight years in a way that reflected my salary rather than my ambitions, felt different when I walked in. Not worse. Just different. The way a familiar room changes its dimensions when you’ve changed.