Retirement rituals: parting (not partying!) with a gift
A retirement gift can make one's exit from working life a needlessly embarrassing memory. If a contest were held for the most idiotic retirement gift, I am convinced that a pillow will make it to the top! Which makes me a winner of sorts. Welcome or feared, retirement is an end to an essential chapter in one's life; undeniably it is a big milestone. With life-long jobs no longer the norm, I am among those increasingly fewer people to experience an official retirement ritual. I get that; I didn't expect an golden watch. I didn't expect anything. But when the corporate formula decided my time to go into retirement had come, the colleagues with whom I shared almost two decades of good work, good spirit and mutual support, decided on a little something to mark my departure. So, at the beginning of the last team meeting I was a part of, they presented me with a gift. It was a surprise and I was prepared to be moved and grateful, knowing that such gesture was totally on their