My "Time of Our Lives" video 10 years after my retirement

[Janice Glesser]

I always tried to make my working career fun. It wasn't always easy working for big corporations...but I seemed to always find a niche where I could not only use my computer skills...but also my creative skills. My title was Senior Technical Specialist and that gave be a wide birth to do many jobs within the Computer and Network Support Department. My favorite job was to shoot and edit videos of our department social events. Events like the Chili Cookoff...the various BBQ's... Dart Tournament... Summer Picnic...etc. were regular occurrences that I documented with video and still photos. One of the last videos I produced was a 2008 video montage of that years events...it was also the year it was announced that our Palo Alto site was closing.

The Office and The Time of Our Lives

[Paul Adsett]

How true that is Janice, The Time of Our Lives, and yet somehow you don't realize it at the time, only when it's gone. Your video is wonderful, so well done, and I am sure a great momento of the people you worked with in your career.
There is nothing like being a part of a great company, it gives such great friendships and lifelong memories. Most people live for the day they can retire from the grind of work, but I never felt that way. I was fortunate to have a job I loved, and the day I retired I felt like part of me had died. I still miss it terribly.

[Leonard Goss]

Absolutely wonderful video Janice. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[Graham Ritchie]

Brilliant video record Janice, do you still keep in touch with some of them? I bumped into someone just last week, I had not seen for 23 years, as we talked he said that he never realized at the time when the place closed, how things would change for him and how fortunate we were back then.

Its great to have that video, probably more important now than ever due to the passing of time.

[Janice Glesser]

Graham Ritchie ... yes I still stay in touch with a few on Facebook. I actually ran into a guy I use to work with while I was waiting to take a Megabus back home from Anaheim. He actually recognized me first. It's a small world.

I eventually left in Sept. 2009 but before that the company paid to have all my videos put on a DVD and gave one out to each in the department.



Paul Adsett and Leonard Goss thank you for watching the video. It's not so much the work we miss...but the people...isn't it?

[Graham Ritchie]

So true Janice that its not the work but the people. I used to think as the years passed people would forget, not true, more the opposite. Through Facebook in particular, one such surprise was a "Paisley" Facebook page, Paisley a place is not far from Glasgow, someone had posted a photo of the garage I once worked at. I replied to that photo, shortly after I got a message back, it was from one of the apprentice I worked with back in 1971-73. I recalled there was Bill the foreman, John the charge hand, me the only fully qualified Datsun mechanic and eight apprentices. I often wondered what happened to them all. Anyway here I was, for the first time in all those years getting all the info. But when he said he remembered me as one of the good guys he had worked with and wondered how I got on in NZ long ago.

People don't forget and that was a good example that really surprised me.

Its a small world at times