The way the EU are refusing to act in everyone's best interests proves we are better out. Sad but true.
You really don't get it do you? The UK is not equal to the EU.
Have you ever had a job where you got on really well with your colleagues - bonded with them over bad managers, the terrible coffee, your difficult customers. Bonded even more over getting drunk and doing embarrassing things at the Christmas party. You’ve met their partners and kids, you’ve covered for them when their grandma died or they were going through a rough patch. As a group, they were, as far as it was possible to be under the circumstances, friends.
And then you leave the job, for whatever reason, and they all suddenly just disappear out of your life, and you theirs.
Despite all the protestations that you’ll keep in touch, you’re suddenly simply not in contact any more. You’ve no idea how that house move went, or how their kids got on in their exams, or if their marriage managed to get through that rough patch or if they split up.
And, more importantly, none of them bother contacting you to get an update on how you’re doing. Sure, you might run into them occasionally at the supermarket or whatever, but aside from a few good-to-see-you-again-we-must-catch-up-sometime platitudes, none of them actually make the effort to go out of their way to meet up with you and find out how you’re doing.
You’re not part of their daily life any more. There might be a few ‘Oh, hey, do you remember X - ran into him at the weekend. Seems to be doing OK. Right, let’s get this presentation finished’ conversations. But that’s the maximum extent of it.
The point is this.
The UK is the ex-colleague. They’ve gone. The EU is getting on with ‘finishing the presentation’. They don’t care. They’ve got more important things to do with their time than think about someone who isn’t there any more.
Sure, there’s a few issues relating to handing over files that the ex-colleague was responsible for, resource management inside the team, and so on. Some of it might even be a bit of a pain in the arse for a few months.
But in general, they’ve got work to do, and more important things to worry about.
Your ex-colleagues and your ex-firm don’t purposely make things difficult for you. You’re just not relevant any more.
The EU isn’t purposely doing anything, either to make life difficult or to be accomodating. They’re just getting on with their day-to-day work.
Now, it sometimes turns out that there are colleagues who were disruptive when they were employed, who were always making things difficult for the rest of them team, who always wanted things done their way, who always wanted special dispensations and perks. And when that ex-colleague resigns in a strop and flounces out, most of the rest of the team breath a bit of a sigh of relief and get on with their work. If that colleage wants to spend their days and effort shouting about constructive dismissal and contractual clauses, then that’s fine, and it’s something that HR will deal with via the legal department and by the procedure outlined in the manual.
But it isn’t something that anyone else is going to spend any time on.