The Parallel Process

There were two sets of instructions.

One said: “Follow standard IT offboarding procedures. Timeline: end of day.”

The other said: “Coordinate equipment collection. Timeline: the person’s convenience.”

Both were written on the same day. One was for IT. One was for the file.

The fast one was real. The polite one was documentation.

That’s how institutions manage exits. Two timelines. The one that happens and the one that’s defensible. The gap between them is the gap between how they treat you and how they’ll describe treating you.