Topic: "Un-Shelled"
In the movie Eraser, Arnold Schwarzenegger “erases” a person and his past identity to protect his future. In a surreal way, I felt sort of “erased” when I got out of Shell employment. One might call it "un-Shelling.” Yes, the process protects both Shell and the retiree for a list of reasons not necessary to discuss for this terse piece.
Working for the Company for many, many years somehow generated a nice Shell patina -- underneath which, however, were certain privileges and obligations which in the end had to be resolved or dissolved, or both, to the satisfaction of everyone concerned.
As a natural and legal clearing process, I had to surrender all vestiges of my status as Shell employee, e.g., corporate credit cards, company ID, club memberships, pending legal documents and court cases, laptop, books, building security access card, GI Smartcard. I told you so. I was “erased.” Whatever, Shell did not demand for the return of my 15-year old attache case – perhaps because it had zero book value. It is the only Shell memento left with me.
On the day of final reckoning, I had to remove the Shell Car Park stickers from my motor vehicles and return them to whoever was in charge. And, as a matter of course, my computer access to Shell got unwired.
As Shell legend goes, one quondam employee even went through the motion of going to office the morning after retirement. Me? I answered “Legal” to first phone caller at home on the first day of my life outside Shell.