Item 10: I have a best friend at work.

Do you?
I have many friends at work. Did you know that a company's success often ties closely with whether or not you feel you have a best friend at work?  So what happens to a company when the time has come for more reorganization and people are let go?  For the second time in four years, nonetheless?!  Not only does that dynamic change, so do many of the other attributes that feed into the best practices of employee engagement. Gallup has done extensive work on this subject and the 12 key dimensions that describe a great work group. 

In this day of rapid-fire change, reorganization, mergers, and acquisitions, having best friends at work may be the true key to effective change integration and adaptation. When compared to those who don't, employees who have best friends at work identify significantly higher levels of healthy stress management, even though they experience the same levels of stress.

So in the past two weeks I have been trying to tell myself that I can move through this change just like any other that has affected me.  But I'm finding that it's not as easy as I thought it would be.  Sure, you can say I should suck it up and that I'm not the one affected, but I am ~ vicariously through my friends who are no longer employed with me.  And it hurts me too.  I no longer get to have Monday morning breakfast with them, sneak away for a lunch once a month, or see their smiling faces in the hallway.

I am generally an upbeat person.  My glass is always half full.  I embrace change like nobody's business.  But I am grieving for the loss of my best friends at work.  And it sucks.