We are a company of 100+, today was our general office wide morning presentation. After a 45 minute update on the new office structure another director comes in front, he shows a slide of a colleague looking happy. Immediately my thoughts go to, oh nice, is he getting promoted?
In one sentence, we learned he has tragically died of cancer, and the funeral was yesterday. There is a website we can write our commiserations if we want to. The director apologises for ending the presentation on such a sad note. The HR director chuckles (!?) as apparently that was a funny thing said.
I am beyond words, honestly. This person has been 'out of office' for a while, and I thought they probably went on sabbatical. He was a great guy, my age, and he is gone now forever, and I am being quietly ushered back to work. No time to mourn, talk about it, even think about him.
Imagine dying, and people at your place of work finding this out as a footnote after an office restructuring presentation. The guy telling us about it wasn't sorry about our colleague dying, he was sorry about bringing the atmosphere down. It makes me feel like my life has no worth, my contributions have no worth, I am just a footnote too and will be easily replaced.
Not sure if this is the right place for this post, so I do apologise if not.