Leaving work

Monday is my last day of work! Today, my bosses have allowed me to announce this to my co-workers. (I was anxiously waiting for this permission)

Of course, there is a rule in the company how parting employees have to conduct themselves. The amount of rules in the company is unbelievable. Being German, I was always convinced that no country has more rules than we do. Wrong! Japan is an order of magnitude worse... My traditional japanese company is no exception. I think that I could easily write a Kafka-style book about those things: "The company"

Example 1:
Chris: What do I have to do to get promoted? What are the criteria that determine that?
Boss: I cannot tell you - it's secret.
( I got promoted anyways, hehe)

Example 2:
Yesterday, I had to pay some cash in the human ressource (=HR) department - I had to pay 4000 Yen (32 $). I only had a 5000 Yen bill.
Chris: Hmmmm, what do we do now? Could you split up this bill? Do you have change?
Cute, but stupid HR girl: No.
Chris: Maybe we can ask somebody to exchange the bill? (about 100 HR people working in 20 meters distance)
Cute, but stupid HR girl: You don't seem to understand. There is a rule that we cannot exchange money.
Chris: ....
Cute, but stupid HR girl: but you can walk to the next supermarket and exchange your bill there.
It took me 20 minutes to split the bill....

Anyways, I am diverting. A co-worker has written me a very nice good-bye email. I was very affected by his email:

Hi, Chris

Thank you very much for having taught me the XYZ library.
It gave my life big influence.
I study and develop the XYZ technology to a base from now on.

[my comment: In case you wonder about XYZ: of course, there is a rule that I cannot speak publicly about it!]