Farewell Luncheons

Our company is beginning to hemorrage people. Not sure if that's because of the lunacy that seems to run rampant or if people are just finding better things to do with their time. Possibly both. But we are starting the fun whirlwind of farewell lunches. You know the ones - get together and say nice things about the people who are leaving, eat food in an attempt to make yourself feel better, then pitch in more for the bill than you would actually have to pay if you had just taken the person out to eat by yourself.

Saying nice things about the people who have left hasn't been hard. They're the good people. You know, the ones who you go to when the chips are down and the deadline is looming and you need someone to help pull your butt out of the sling that it's going to be in if something doesn't get done. But today, things crossed the line. Today, the CEO came to the farewell lunch.

He then proceeded to assign absolute responsibility for the success of a recently completed project to the person leaving. Not saying this person was an important member of the team. Not saying this person provided needed skills that allowed us to succeed. No - he said this person was the sole reason that the project succeeded.

My problem with this? It was essentially a two person team.

I was the other person.

I worked my tail off on this project. The person leaving would admit this. The person leaving would say that without either one of us, the project would've flopped like a tuna in a net. But management - you know, the people who write my paycheck? They think it was all this other person. And yeah, that ticks me off. And it's not just the CEO who feels this way. The Program Manager has said as much to my face and also to the person who's leaving (and oh, yeah, to the customer PM).

There are a lot of very nice things to say about this coworker. They were an integral part of the team. Without them, absolutely, we would've had a major uphill battle. But it's not like no one else was working. And probably, at the end of the day, we would've pulled it off.

And now the hole has been dug. Because they can't just say they said it because it was a farewell luncheon. And that leaves me wondering why I bother. Because, at the end of the day, I've been told by other people that they consider me one of the people that you go to when the chips are down and you need someone to help pull your tail out of the sling it's going to be in if something doesn't get finished.

If I leave - what's left to say at my farewell luncheon?

"You really worked well with Co-worker X who just left. Even if X did all the work, you added a certain...panache in using up oxygen that would otherwise have been missing."

"Ah, yes, Co-worker X really made you look good by association. After all, they did such fabulous work and you stayed the hours so that you were here when they were."

Maybe, just maybe, I would be less annoyed if one thing wasn't true. Co-worker X? She's my older sister. And I am, yet again, stuck in her shadow.