Twelve years ago, in the midst of a life change the extent of which I had no conception, I started to work at my current location. I would write “my current employer” but the company has undergone so many major changes in the past five years (spinning off from the parent company to be an independent public company, being taken private by an investment group, having the investment group announce they wanted to go public, it is definitely NOT the same company I started with 12 years ago, even though I have an office in the same large cubicle farm.

In that twelve years, there have been more than a few layoffs, almost continuously from within a few months of my start date. Despite that uncertainty coupled with the strains from my divorce, the first four years or so that I worked here had a high “fun factor” because of the people who I worked with or, if I didn’t work directly with them, were in the general vicinity of my cubicle. There were many people with distinctive personalities that if not always pleasant were consistently challenging and interesting.

In other words, fun…

Really.

However, just like the physical process of erosion, the toll imposed by the exigencies of the past few years has washed away those who may have interesting personal characteristics but ultimately are judged to be “not in alignment” with the corporate mission.

I’m still trying to figure out how I keep dodging the “redeployment” bullet. It’s not as if I devote any energy at all to making friends and influencing people. Instead I’m argumentative, I poke holes in every sanguine presentation I see, and I warn against the worst rather than cheerleading the optimists.

At this point, I seem to be the sole survivor of the misfits. The fun factor in the job faded long ago with the continual losses of work-friends.

Once the fun factor is gone, it is just a job.

Sigh…