I ate too much raw onion last night and my eye hurts.....

Oh bugger!

What a shame!

But enjoy morning tea!

Was there a place for Intestinal Fortitude on your latest job application?

Nah...but I sure know how to give people the shits!


One of my colleagues got it today....at work.....and had to evacuate the building asap.

Eek.

Can't that be the altruistic reason to stay home? Or at least GO home, asap?

Feel better!!

Poor Soz...in reply to that innocent statement, here's a long and boring work digression. (I hope it helps me make sense of stuff)



I bet lots of you can relate to this: at my work, the only way to cope with being sick is if you are really incapable of work, in any way, shape or form, because:

i. Nobody does any part of your job for you, so when you get back, it is hell.

ii. Nobody really "gets" what I do, so, if I am not there to monitor, I find a heap of inappropriate referrals, which take me days to unwind, or I find out later that a heap of appropriate ones were not followed up, and I have to spend months doing repair work. This is so much so, that I am in the midst of an informal training process for our intake workers, where the clerical people tell me if there is an inquiry re my program, and I stop by intake as ssoon as I can, to support and educate each individual intake worker on how to manage referrals to me. It sucketh mightily, but, after two years, I can't see any other way. I figure if I walk everyone through everything at least twice, they will be able to do it from there.

iii. This isn't because people are malign or dumb, but because the whole system is strained to breaking point. We have 2 full timers out with a stroke and breast cancer respectively (you can't replace people on sick leave)......2 senior positions unfilled, and 4 people filling them part time, with no backfill for them. This means we are SIX actual people who do the actual core work down, (that's almost half) and our upper management (one of whom is a doctor who turns up from time to time, because he is doing another job...unbackfilled...part time and the other has just returned from 6 months off because she wasn't coping,) have not grasped this, and keep handing work out as though we had a full complement. We also have two full timers off for 5 week's holiday each. THis affects me less than anyone, directly, because I am a one person show, and do different work, but it affects how others deal with matters pertaining to my job.


This means people are still being told they have to take all new forensics etc, even though two of them are far sicker than I was, and were ordered off work, but felt less stressed at work, than being home knowing that the reports they were preparing had deadlines that they could not meet.

This means that my work has adopted the "someone else's problem invisibility cloak" so wonderfully delineated in the Hitchhiker's Guide.

Management are coming up with ideas to cope (new and good) but so far their ideas reflect an utter ignorance of the realities of their workforce, so have made more mess than they solve. But it is a beginning!

iv: If I do not turn up for groups I am running, massive meetings it has taken months to organise, training for large groups, and new clients, no matter how we all try to be decent and rationalise, the reality is that people feel angry, abandoned and seriously messed about, and I lose hard won respect, credibility, and easy access to the systems I have to have those things with. It is not fair, but it is utterly real and widely acknowledged and has to be dealt with. It is a Fact Of Life for everyone in my kind of area, and there ain't no use repining or whining.



So, unless I am dying and/or have an easy day for some reason, it is easier and less stressful to go to work.





I so bet this is true for most people.

Yeah, I know, I know. Sorry it is that way for you though.

Are you feeling better now?

Yes thankee.

Good!

Pleased that you're much improved, Deb!




(How was the morning tea on Friday? Delectable eats?)

Heh heh.....


My subconscious knew I didn't really have anything crucial until 11 am that day, and I was so tired, I turned off my alarm without waking up, and slept in.


We have a 9 am allocation meeting every Friday, which has nothing to do with me, but which I am expected to turn up for.


The boss had previously emailed her intent that we have a meeting at 10 am to discuss how we could cope with so many people down. She later sent an email cancelling it.


I snuck in at about 10.10, hoping to meld inconspicuously into the morning tea.


I saw everyone's heads in the meeting room, assumed allocation had drifted along endlessly, felt it was too obvious I was late if I went into the meeting, so went upstairs to work.



I came downstairs at 11 am for a scheduled phone link up, and went to the link up room. Nobody.


At 11.20, our hysterical and ineffectual admin person called to say one of the link up people was on the line.

I explained that the other people needed from our end appeared to be still in the meeting, and could she call them to come to the link up.


I neglected to tell her to tell them that I was there waiting for them.....so she didn't. (I thought it an obviousish sort of thing to say)


So...when she called them, everyone started wondering where I was. Small posses were sent out. Searches, exclamations......



So much for my sneaky late morning!!!



I missed morning tea, of course.



As well as the important meeting the boss had decided to have after all.

Damn!

I was holding out for all the delicious details! Delicacy by delicacy .....

Sometimes, Deb, you're such a disappointment!




:wink: