At work people have the habit of informing close colleagues in person of their leave, and later announcing it to the rest with a long email, often using the room to reflect on a few great years of work. Last week I learned that HR decided at some point to take control over this process, demanding control over the content and timing of the email. I had no desire to have my honest opinion sanitized like it's the North Korean state press, so I jumped the gun and sent out my email before HR could get to me. My goal was to be honest about why I was leaving without burning any bridges, so I did what any normal person would do and hid my criticism the subtext.

Keeping in mind that everything I liked about my company will effectively be destroyed by the MegaCorp, despite us making clear protests and even providing alternatives to no avail, I named my goodbye email "So long, and thanks for all the fish" (which should just sound like a funny way of saying goodbye to the uninitiated) and added this to the end:

P.S. As a fan of Douglas Adams' absurdist sci-fi, I couldn't resist ending with this passage 🐬

'Curiously enough, the dolphins had long known of the impending demolition of Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger. But most of their communications were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs, so they eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own means. The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double backwards somersault through a hoop. But, in fact, the message was this: “So long and thanks for all the fish”.'

To me it's funny in a funny-because-it's-sad way. I thought it was maybe too much on the nose but I haven't heard anything negative back from HR so I guess it'll just stay my inside-joke.

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Anyway. I'm getting a few offers in for solar on my roof, and am getting serious about replacing our gas-powered central heating with an all-electric system . There's one who can place solar in the first week of August so I could start enjoying them pretty soon! The weather's been very warm over here. Those scary global temperature and ice cap anomaly graphs are lived through and through out here. The accompanying grass hay fever doesn't help lift the mood too, ugh.