Barbara's Retirement - 2011 We both traversed marriage and divorce, the birth of children or grandchildren, health concerns, family matters, life changes, many employment situations, and at times, worry about the future of the program that funded our positions with our employer.

Barbara is now retiring from our workplace, after an almost 31 year career.

She is a testament to the power of persistence in the workplace. The several positions she held at work were not all her choosing. Her work positions were eliminated, which happens with our employer, and she was moved into an existing or created position so as to keep her employed. This happened three times over Barbara's career. Each time her work responsibility was changed such that she had to learn from anew her role in the new position. She continued to do this over the decades, as needed. Now she oversees a section at work that includes 15 employees.

I consider this a reflection of what Barbara brought to the work environment: her personality. I recall the statement that a senior executive management individual made during a celebration we held for Barbara's 30th work anniversary. He stated that Barbara was the only person that he knew that would tell you 'no', and you would feel good about it. He said that that was a rare gift that she had. I knew exactly what he was meaning, as I've experienced this with her or seen her do this many times over the past 17 years.

Barbara has weathered several life changing events during the time I've worked with her. I won't detail these, but I will share the professional manner with which she managed these events. I have seen Barbara traverse difficult personal and work situations with tact and professionalism throughout. She never let her emotions get the better of her at work, especially when other's would've, and did. She would often tell me during our tete-a-tete's in her cubicle that we all had problems in life but that didn't mean that we had to bring the problems to work or let them impact how we dealt with our co-workers.

I remember a particular example of this. I had another co-worker for the past ten years, in another department, whom I worked with on a fairly complicated document development project over several years. A few years ago, this person once directed the anger held about a work situation directly at me when we were discussing the work project. This person later sent an email to apologize for what happened and stated that this event was uncalled for and undeserved to be directed at me.

After this event, I met with Barbara to share with her how I was glad that she never treated me this way, in spite of personal challenges (which we all have), and that she always treated me with respect and professionalism, regardless of whether she was guiding, praising, or questioning me on work matters. Before that event I simply did not know how fortunate I was that Barbara was the way she was. Things could've been much worse, considering the daily exposure I had with Barbara since we were on the same close work team. She could've been like this other person with her work style, and were this the case, my work environment would've been quite different and much less enjoyable.

We did not always agree on work matters, as we had quite different work functions, and mine would impact her work outcomes at time. Regardless, Barbara continued to work professionally towards the same outcome as me and throughout displayed a recognition that I was a coworker with deadlines as well as a human with feelings, irrespective of what significant and impacting personal concerns were on her mental plate at the time.

Having Barbara in my life changed my life, literally. I have sometimes thought about what my life path would be like if she had not persistently convinced her boss at that time to hire me. It's all unprovable speculation, but having her do that changed the way my life is to-date. When I was first hired, I was in my early 30's. I had only been in Arizona, and the U.S. for a couple of years. I had only been married a couple of years. I didn't have children. Health care plans for my family and future earning potential wasn't part of my vocabulary. Retirement wasn't even a glimmer in my thoughts.

When I first started working with Barbara and her work group at the time, I actually only saw myself working there for a couple of years, and then moving on. I had 'a plan'.

But, plans change, as we all know.

After being hired, mine included something that I hadn't experienced to-date in this country: enjoyment. I enjoyed my work. I enjoyed having Barbara as a work resource and squeezing a great amount of institutional knowledge out of her head. She was a great resource to bounce ideas off so as to separate the dross from the useful project material. She shared an opinion that I included in my opining about many projects, large and small. She was a person who would drop whatever it was that she was doing, when I would sit down in her cubicle, so as to offer me her full attention, eye-to-eye.

After a while, as more and more of our co-workers would move on over the years, I saw Barbara as a valued person who walked the same work path with me. We'd both been through many middle management work styles of the changing middle-management bosses that I was indirectly held accountable to and that she reported to. We would commiserate over this at times, and laugh at other times. We began to share 'the knowing' over many things, as the years went by and the history between us increased over the sharing of many work experiences and events.

Barbara has a style about her that attracts certain people to her for direction. She knows a lot and when she doesn't know she is the first to admit this, and yet still offers useful words to consider. That's a gift that I know many who worked with her shared enjoyment of. It made our days at work easier and more tolerable at times.

I don't go to work to make friends. I go to work to work. But, I made friends with Barbara. I consider her a mentor and a friend that I will miss when I no longer see her on daily basis as I have during the past 17+ years. Having Barbara in my life changed my life, and I'm so glad that she fought to get me hired those many years ago.

But, now, she is moving on to a new chapter in her existence. An ending of the old, and the beginning of the new. I'm soon to be one of the old to her. But, I'm fine with that.

She made my work life fun for the past 17 years. We laughed. We shared. We worked well together because of the strengthening of the bond and trust we shared over the years.

Thank you Barbara. I've enjoyed getting old with you. I will miss you. As a co-worker. And, as a friend.

Written by Andre Best
http://www.andrebest.com
'...insights :: insightful information for inquisitive individuals'

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