Today was the last day at my month long job that turned into a five month long job. I think I've written about this before but I hate the last day of work, especially at a place-- like this one-- which was a really nice place to work. There's all the awkwardness of saying goodbye to people you don't really know that well or don't really like. And even though everybody says "send me your information so we can keep in touch" nobody really does, especially considering I was there for only five months (my guess is that "give me your contact information" when you're leaving is an automatic think, like saying gezundheit when somebody sneezes). Then there's the inevitable dread that somebody has something big planned and you get dragged into a conference room and presented with a cake.

Oh yeah, then there's the fact I hate saying goodbye in general, especially when there's a bunch of coworkers I really, really liked.


Since I knew about a week ago that today was going to be my last day, there's all sorts of additional weirdness involved, like who knows and who doesn't and who should know and how much do I want people to know? And while I say I don't care that much and don't want to turn it into a big deal, by the time it comes close, I kinda wanted to have some sort of big deal made. It's like how people are with their birthday-- people say they don't care but the closer that day comes the more they do care and start getting pissed that they're not getting birthday greetings. So as the week progressed-- the day even-- I started to wonder, "hey, come nobody's saying anything? Where my peeps at?"

Well, the peeps came out and it was a rough hour or two with lots of sniffling and goodbyes and did I mention that it was one of the nicest places I've worked at?

Which brings us to today's topic, mainly the whole "to hug or not to hug" thing with women, especially women coworkers. Now, I've usually been kinda anti-hug, or more like too uptight to hug. Now, I've mellowed out enough that I do and will occasionally seek out a hug. But what about with coworkers because there were actually a couple of coworkers who I actually kinda wanted to hug because I adored both of them. But who initiates the hug? Me? Them? Is it weird since it's a work thing? And if I hug a few people, do I have to hug everyone, even the one's I don't feel connected enough to hug?

It's also a weird things with hugs because with guys, you can shake their hands and that's good enough but you don't really shake hands to say goodbye to a female. Instead, I guess, you hug but hugging is such a more intimate thing than shaking hands as body actually meets body. Of course, women are more intimate and emotional than guys are so that makes some sense, but still.

Then there's my (ex) boss who's female and I felt like I could have hugged her but I wasn't sure because I don't know if she's a hugger and so there was this weirdness when I said goodbye to her because I felt like I should have but, as a guy and as someone who was at one point a boss, should I initiate it or should she? I finally said goodbye to everyone but now I'm feeling guilty because, darnit, I kinda feel like I should have at least hugged somebody.

Oh well. Anyways, I'm really going to miss working there.