A strange low. A bit nostalgic. Alex is quitting work. No I don’t want to say it like that. But that’s what she is doing. She knew this will happen if she went back home. And it has. So now she will raise her two adorable boys.

She is quitting after 17 years. She cannot do it all. She doesn’t want to do it all: and we as a society are not going to make it easy for her. Because we are all dispensable robots and can be replaced by those who can do it all. Or at least claim they can.

People like me, need people like Alex around them. She helped me ground myself when I was loosing it. She left good morning notes and good bye notes on my desk to tell me that she missed not having me in the cubes since I was running around to meetings all day. She also scheduled monthly walks on my calendar because some times you need to take a break. She taught me how to make gingerbread house and helped me throw a Christmas party where all of us made ginger bread houses as per her instructions. She is a rock. And my rock is quitting.

I don’t know why I am mad. Because she went back to Germany to be with family during COVID!? Or because she wants to spend more time with her kids? Or because she was so tired of the organizational disruptions that she just could not focus on what she wanted to solve any more. Or because she did not even think about any of us who need her in our lives.

More power to her to choose her wish. I am sad. I don’t like it when people leave teams and even more when they leave Google. I just have a hard time letting them go. And I am struggling right now.

I will miss the kids and making holiday drinks for Thomas. I will miss their easy going family that was such an inspiration to ours. Tara will miss her hand made gifts and I will miss her stares. Alex was like an elder sister to me.

I will miss her and I wish her well.