Last Tuesday was my last ever day in Atlantic House after just over ten years of working there. It is being closed as part of changes to office locations brought about by the fact most people work from home and have been doing since the original lockdown brought about by Covid-19. I’ve pretty much had the office to myself since we were allowed to go back in July, with a handful of people in some days. There has been somewhat of a feeling like it being the Marie Celeste, and it was no surprise that the office would be closed, the first of three announced so far, and there are sure to be others as we move into 2021.
To be fair the usage of the office had been heading downhill before Covid struck. The teams that were in the office had been downsizing over the previous few years and it was probably only ever at a maximum of half capacity most of the times (apart from Wednesdays, when the world and their wives would descend on the building for team meetings). It was at the kind of level it first was when we moved over there at the back end of 2010 to prepare for the sale of the Networks business after the company had bought British Energy.
Employee Services was of a similar size to what it will be in January, and of those original refugees from Energy House, not a lot survive, I’ve had a good think and only eight of us are still in Employee Services now, there are a couple who were and have moved on elsewhere within HR, and there are others in Employee Services who were employed by the company back then, but there are only the eight of us, half of which work in the team I’m in, and four of them had worked for me when we were in Energy House.
Over the years we have seen the team expand, to the point where we were on two floors, and then after meeting rooms and offices were stripped out of the first floor, we were crammed in taking up the whole of that floor. And then as various projects and reorganisations have taken place, we have shrunk again into a space that was less than half of the floor.
I’ve moved around the first floor quite a bit, but have spent the post lockdown months in a spot where my original desk was when we moved over. I’ve spent time on floor two as well when I was seconded to a very long and tiresome project, after which the reduction of the team could be seen more clearly. And along with the reduction in the team, the dilution of team spirit it took with it became more obvious.
It had used to be a fun place to work, and we did some great team events in the office. 2012 was probably the high point, we had just taken on a whole new team as part of an expansion, and the events came thick and fast during the year. Easter, Queen’s 60th Jubilee, Olympics, Halloween, Christmas, and Charity days. These would always involve dressing up, cake baking, eating, top trumps tournaments and engagement from the whole office. (Well, apart from a select handful of professional miseries, which at that point didn’t include me.) It was a good place to be.
Over the last few years all the fun has seemed to have been sucked out of working. People have been literally told not to talk, not to laugh, and if someone just happens to be smiling it is frowned upon (yes, that was intentional). Fun has come to be forced and therefore actually tiresome.
The teams would go out for social events – Friday night at the Snooty, Bowling, meals, helping hands etc – and it was all good. And as for the Christmas parties, they were legendary. Everything is so buttoned up now, and we don’t really mix outside of work at all now, which is somewhat of a shame.
And now that the office is closing the team will be split even more than they were before lockdown if and when we get back to the office.
There have been a lot of characters that have worked in Atlantic House, some I’m glad to have met, that I’m glad to know, and call acquaintances. Others who have been an utter nightmare and in no way am I sorry that they don’t work there anymore. And even more have been barely tolerated with accompanying eye-rolling (and I’m sure they thought equally highly of me). Some of them were only there for a matter of hours, some will still be working for the company into their nineties. A lot of people have left whilst we have been there, some have had grand leaving dos and great speeches, others went out for lunch and never came back (this seems especially prevalent in payroll).
I’ve been working at this office for about twenty percent of my life and there are a lot of good memories from it, and some big life events have taken place whilst I’ve been working there, and there is a part of me who is going to miss the office. The rest of me just wants a lottery win so I don’t have to commute to a new office.