In which I vent a little

[selenay]

Dear colleague,

I know that you're not subtle, but today? It was flagrant. When you didn't show up, we all assumed you were sick. After all, you haven't taken this month's sick day yet. Then another colleague told us that you'd told her you wouldn't be in today. So we assumed vacation, even though nothing was listed in the vacation planner (nor was yesterday afternoon's vacation listed), and tried to think charitably rather than wondering how in hell you didn't borrow all of this year's vacation to 'pay' for all of last year's absences.

Then the note came out from the mail group to say that you were sick. So you, er, planned a sick day in advance? I'd be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and think you had tests or something, except that doesn't require a note to the absence group and you're the same guy who frequently 'works from home' (but is un-contactable on email, IM and home phone) and has been spotted heading to the beach on other sick days.

Seriously, if you're going to abuse the system in front of me could you be a little more subtle about it? Most people are getting very annoyed with how much time off you're taking and I'm getting frustrated that you're able to swan off constantly while I need to stay at work in order to have sick time available if I'm super sick, rather than just a wee bit sick.

If any of us believed that you were genuinely sick today, we'd be very sympathetic. Except you've been stupid enough to make mistakes in your stories and you've been seen doing things people taking a sick day probably shouldn't do, so we're finding it very hard to be generous. It's the first nice day in ages, you obviously didn't plan to be at work today, and you have a pattern. This is why we're all bitching about you today and why you may find the atmosphere a little unwelcome tomorrow.

Although, it is nice not having your nicotene smell hanging around in the cubicle today. We're appreciating that.

No love,
All your colleagues


Yesterday, I apparently looked so worn out when I got home that Mum wouldn't let me go walking and insisted on making supper, even though it was my turn. Hmm. Hopefully today will be a little less draining so that I can get a decent bit of exercise in and have the energy to do supper. Then after supper it's Humira night, which means it's treat night! Yay :-)

I'm most of the way through Tortall, a collection of short stories by Tamora Pierce. Short stories collections can be a bit hit or miss, but so far it's been consistently pretty good. There are one or two stand-out pieces that I've thoroughly enjoyed and I'm now getting into the non-Tortall based stories. Hopefully they'll stand up as well as the Tortall stories.

I think the reason that my reading has slowed so much lately is that the fanfic I'm reading on my Kindle is way more appealing than the book I'm wading through on it and I can't absorb anthologies in one gulp, so I'm reading a story or two a day. Hopefully I'll get Tortall finished over the next couple of days so my book count for the month won't be too bad. Next month, I need to regain my trick of finding really wonderful books that I race through. I've got two new books to read, both hard covers by favourite authors, so hopefully they'll be the ones to get me out of my slow reading rut. 

Then I'm contemplating whether to do a full Harry Potter re-read now (possibly trying to get one or two of the French ones read along-side) or wait until I can do the full re-read on my Kindle. Part of me wants to re-read because the final film comes out in two weeks, another part wants to wait. Oh, the hardship of these decisions ;-)

Comments

[gmul.livejournal.com]

She's your mummy, it's her job to make a fuss.

As for your colleague, don't they have a manager who should be keeping an eye on this sort of thing? If they're not delivering work as part of a team, whoever else is affected by that should be able to get them in proper trouble fairly quickly, with appropriate evidence keeping.