Weeknotes #399 — The sense of an ending

Looking out over London from the Duck & Waffle at 110 Bishopsgate My boss retired on Friday. In one form or another, I’ve been working for him for most of the past 16 years. Looking back, deciding to move to this company and having the good fortune to meet and work for him feels like one of those extremely improbable events. As Ronnie Barker said when looking back over his career, “What luck.” His planned retirement, something that we’ve known about for over half a year, is one of those bittersweet moments where you are happy for your friend in that they are going off to do their next thing, sad for yourself as you won’t get to see and work with them every day, and excited for what opportunities might open up as a result of the change. My first stint of working for him started in 2010. I’d just left UBS, a company that I had joined as a graduate and that had given me so many opportunities, but had become a toxic place to work as a result of the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis.…