Farewell

Friday is Holly's last day to work in my department. The best thing about Holly's job performance (apart from the organizational talent, the ambition to learn new things, the drive to do things just right the first time, the determination to be the best at whatever task is at hand) is her attitude. She does her job cheerfully with a minimum of complaining.

I am a whiner by choice. If I'm suffering, I want everybody around me to suffer.

For example, if I have to copy a half dozen pages of text on one of the area's less-than-trustworthy copiers, I complain that I had to walk too far to the copy room, somebody didn't fill the paper tray again, the &^%$ copier jammed again, and I didn't make enough copies so now I have to go back and do it again.

Holly, on the other hand, will cheerfully stand at the copier while forcefeeding it a couple trillion pages and come back to the unit still smiling. She is the only person that I have ever seen do that.

Now that she's leaving, I can tell her: Holly, that's just plain annoying.

Holly, I'll miss you. The copiers will miss you. We'll all miss your smile.