An aphoristic remark I heard at John’s recent farewell is worth recording. While it could be easily dismissed as a bit of mildly amusing word play of the greeting card genre, it has an amazing poignancy because of who made it and whom it was about.
The laconic and mysterious ex-MD of Poland had specially flown in to attend the intimate gathering to pay tribute to John. At the end of a few deeply felt and charmingly clumsy words about John being the best boss he had had, he ended with the phrase: “age doesn’t matter, because what matters doesn’t age”. Put in context, the remark went well beyond an obvious tribute to seniority. It had echoes of nostalgic recollections made in the twilight, of heroic battles fought in the day, of values honored and hearts moved.
Corporate life is an amazingly efficient palimpsest. Epics are inscribed on the corporate scrolls over years, and become part of the folklore of a generation. A couple of people move, are mechanically replaced by others, and it is as if the previous stories had dematerialized. They are swiftly effaced and over-written.
Life at work seemingly has no time for nostalgia or denial. Yet this brittle culture of apathetic rationalization and objectification of work fails to take into account the human needs of attachment, the deeper meanings of affiliation, and of the sense of purpose which we are all seeking.
Notes to Self 
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