The day X

How do you now actually terminate your employment? You can quit with immediate effect at Apple, like many other American companies, and simply not show up to work anymore. For an orderly departure, however, you should give two weeks of notice before leaving. You can do this by email to the boss, who will then forward it to the HR department, but I'm old-fashioned and called my manager by videocall and then sent the email stamped with the date. A paper letter is not necessary. You can also give notice longer than two weeks in advance, but in my opinion that is unwise, because then you hang around like a zombie for weeks. In two weeks you can take care of everything, hand over projects, train successors, and because of the short deadline, no one wastes time senselessly. Everyone was quite shocked, but I was persistent, once you have chosen the way of leaving your job, there is no turning back, otherwise you just make yourself look ridiculous. Finally our team went together a few more times to the cafeteria for an extended lunch on the private terrace of the "Results Way" campus and then the day of farewell was already there. We are still in contact, in fact I'm now texting with some former colleagues more than during my active time at Apple.

The phone number of my cell phone, which I also used privately, I was allowed to transfer to a newly established and paid for monthly mobile contract. In the employee shop I bought myself a new laptop. I had to give back the company laptop. I gradually cleared out my cubicle, now there is a bicycle and two skateboards at our home.

I'm currently enjoying my new found freedom, already in the second month. It's great that I now have the time to finally do tasks that have been postponed for years. Whether it's reupholstering the dining room chairs or fixing the tap of the sink that no longer closes properly, or making a few videos about cooking German recipes with American ingredients or finally writing our newsletter in peace: every day I tick off at least one task from a list of hundreds of entries. Let's see how this develops. And of course there's still time for surfing.