Things I Miss: Working at the same place as my better half

This is my last ‘Things I Miss’ post, because Tara and I have launched Timeless Thoughts, a monthly linkup we will be co-hosting for the same purpose! It will run on the first Saturday of each month, starting on 5th September, and will be hosted by Tara first. This post is a therefore a little bittersweet, but should not be misinterpreted as a sad one. :)

I’ve mentioned it in passing, but I don’t work at the same company as Nick anymore. Although it was a difficult decision, I decided to move on.

Even though I still work close by, I miss working in the same place, though not just because I got to see him every day. I still see him every day anyway. We hardly saw each other at work. We were never working together in the same team, apart from a hackathon (which we won first prize for).

We had the obvious ability to see each other, even if we could only glance from all the way on the other side of the room. We had lunch together and still said hi to each other while walking around the office.

As far as we were aware, there weren’t any rules that prevented us from working for the same company or from seeing each other, but we did our best to keep things quiet. We avoided talking too much at work, and behaved professionally until word got out, in the form of rumours or people simply asking either one of us if we were seeing each other. We maintained that professionalism as best we could. No one threatened our positions at the company.

I miss the people there a lot. There were some really nice people who were amazing at what they did as engineers or in customer service or in operations. Others, not so nice – I don’t miss them. The people I miss are people I still talk to, and I miss working with them because they were a great source of support and inspiration.

It’s difficult admitting that you miss people, because it’s the closest you can get to missing something entirely human. And sometimes, we miss things that may have not even been that close, or that have been completely out of our reach. I can’t say I’ll keep in touch with these people regularly or even a decade into the future, but they undoubtedly left a lot for me to remember them by, whether they know it or not.

There was something about telling people that Nick and I worked at the same company – something about it that was nice. In essence, it made me smile. I don’t get to say that anymore. The phrase ‘I used to work there’ sounds a little cold. I get all sorts of questions about how we met, if the company minded that we were seeing each other, or if they made one of us leave. They did not mind and neither one of us was forced to leave.

I just know that I miss it somewhat, in a faint, bittersweet, kind of shrug, like a quiet exhale on an early autumn morning.