So, last week I had lunch with my former colleague K. I left the organisation some years ago; meanwhile K has prospered and is now in a position to hire the successor to my former manager, who is retiring. I immediately expressed an interest, and a couple of days later I sent K a formal application for the job.

I checked in with K on Tuesday, and he confirmed that he had received my application, with less than ten others; he would get around to looking at them properly early next week, he thought.

I was a bit dismayed yesterday to see the job advertised on one of the Brussels job sites with an application deadline of 31 August. Had K changed his mind about the timing of the process? Had one of his minions put the wrong date for the deadline, or made one up? Had K decided that none of the applications were good enough? My mind was
racing.

And then a further twist came in the evening with a save-the-date email unprecedentedly inviting me to K’s birthday party in October. I guess this means he thinks we will still be on speaking terms by then, at the very least…