The inexorable march of time

My last day at Mozilla was yesterday. I will surely miss it.

Most jobs I’ve had experienced only a two week resignation period, during which I wrapped up my projects and usually had some tension with those left behind. I was always moving on to something better (and I am in this case, too, but “better” is different in this sense), and they knew it. When the Vice President of Engineering thinks those who don’t live in the office are not dedicated enough to the company, most people wish to move on. And they resent the lucky few who do.

But Mozilla is different. Between the six week notice period (to finish up my goals) and the fact that I actually LOVE Mozilla, leaving was more like a slow, painful death than a quick, jubilant exit.

My coworkers are legitimately sad at my departure. And I am legitimately sad to be going, even if what I move onto next is a “better thing.” When you work for a company like Mozilla, “better” isn’t a concrete thing. Some things will be better, others won’t. And when you work with a team that is so awesome you still want to come to their workweeks just to hang out, moving on is painful.

Watching the process of the team moving on was interesting, too. I was there through a complete goal-setting cycle, knowing full well that none of the goals would be mine. My 1:1’s became shorter and shorter, as Laura and I had less and less to discuss. I began to run out of things to do.

But the wonderful thing is that no matter how painful leaving was in the end, everybody at Mozilla will move on. The project is bigger than any one person. Change happens. It can be difficult, it can be stressful, but it can’t be avoided. I am sad to leave, but confident that my (now former) coworkers will carry the torch forward and do great things. Time marches on, and so does Mozilla.

Brandon Savage is the author of Mastering Object Oriented PHP and Practical Design Patterns in PHP

nigelb (@nigelbabu) wrote at 1/15/2014 1:51 am:

Hey Brandon, I didn’t hear you were moving on, best of luck! :-)

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