The Exit Interview

February 20, 2015
Day 296
-5, 79,916 (+6,419)

If you're laid off from a job, you're usually offered some kind of package deal for the road, at least the phone numbers of some nearby employment agencies if not one last paycheck for the road. 

But if you actually choose to leave a job, and you give your employer fair notice, you'll usually go in for what's called an exit interview.  Part of the reason is to poll you on the company and your reasons for leaving, but another part, it seems, is just to take your temperature.  If you seem angry at your supervisor or the company as a whole, they'll often just show you the door right away.  "Thanks for the two weeks' notice, but you can leave now."

The concept is a strange one, specifically because it isn't something you see happen in any other place in your life.  When you break up with a lover, you don't set up time to chat with the person over coffee and ask if they thought you were a good kisser, or whether they liked that other thing you did for them.  Likewise, you'd never get a message from Facebook when you and a long-time friend part ways, asking you if there was anything they could do differently to help the two of you stay social with each other (who knows though what the future may hold).

We don't have the luxury of an exit interview in most areas of our lives.  We don't have a third party available when a friendship or relationship "breaks up", nor would we want one, really.  There are no exit interviews usually, only exits, swift ones at that, and sometimes the time for talking is just over, and wouldn't help either of you anyway. 

Yet talking through an ending of any kind with a friend, faith leader, or family member can help us transition to a new normal, a new reality without that person or place in our lives.  We may not call them exit interviews, but we can make these kinds of conversations happen anytime.  There won't be a package deal when a loved one disappears from your life, but decompressing through open conversation and tears can help unload much of the built-up pressure from your soul.