Though I asked to sit on the interview panel that would screen my successor at work, I was never called to do so, and so, I let it go. As such, I have never met my successor and do not even know who he/she is.

One of the things I very much wanted to warn my successor of, though, are certain contacts, most of them established and generally considered to have "names", who are out to milk the office of money by applying for grants. Having known these people for years, I observed that they pad their grant proposals with exorbitant sums in millions--more than enough to make them set for life over and above what they propose to spend the money on.

Such contacts always made my supervisors lose respect for them. And, of course, I was, by default, the emissary of bad news, announcing that their proposals were not approved, and to their greatest consternation.

I cannot remember whether I relished their reactions or not.