I work within a team of five people. At the moment, there's only three of us there - but last week, there was one person there doing the work of all five people.
That one person was me.
The others - well, they were all off sick.
While I feel sorry for them - it's not nice being ill - it's not fair that I was left to hold the fort on my own!
I had to put up with my co-workers coughing, spluttering, sneezing, blowing their noses, complaining about how they felt like shit - and I had to do their work for them!
And I didn't get sick.
I had four people at work sneezing and coughing in my immediate vicinity, plus, my hubby has had a really bad cold and, as you'd all know, I am permanently attached to his side when I'm at home (I have no qualms about admitting to being a needy female!) and yet, I stayed healthy.
Now - thank God for that - I seem to have a good immune system - but seriously, there needs to be some sort of award for *not* having days off sick!
There needs to be some sort of benefit for employees who don't seem to catch what's going around, who stay at work, and who do their sick colleagues' work.
I keep thinking about doing the old "I can't come in today, I'm unwell. Cough, cough" phone call - just because I reckon I need a day off too, but then I keep thinking that if I chuck sickies when I'm not sick, then I'll have no more sickies left when I need them.
So it sucks. They're all sick, sitting at home in their jim-jams watching soapies and drinking chicken soup. And I'm at work, doing *their* work.
There's something not quite fair about all of this...
What say you?
9 comments:
She lives!
The curse of the healthy immune system...I know it well. I was never good enough at faking an illness to get out of school, so I have more perfect attendance rewards than I could ever want.
You got perfect attendance awards?! That's not fair - I want something like that. Why is there not a "she doesn't have a pathetically weak immune system" award?
Having said that, I have another rant in me about people turning up to work when they're all sniffly and coughing on me. I hate that!
They rewarded 100% attenders at my school.
We used to get to go on theme park trips, get money or vouchers for interesting things.
Unfortunately this doesn't extend to the workplace.
I wouldn't get any anyway, I think.
I think I'd be classed as your typical 'skiver'.
My Bad.
No kidding. I hate those people who are under the false impression that they are so indespensible that they absolutely need to show up to work when they're puking or else the entire company is going to crumble...then they get five other people sick in the process...
Personally, I'd take a mental health day. I'd especially take one if you've done 5 peoples work for a week.
Sick or not, there's nothing quite like a day off when you know everyone has to go to work!
[Insert empathy here.]
I work in IT for a ...large... organisation and was single-handedly redefining the entire paradigm of our department's focus, literally reducing certain parts of our workload to less that 10% of its original requirement... all in a matter of weeks. Until fairly recently, when my immediate manager - who has been undermining me for months now - replaced my individual efforts with a team of ten people (including himself and myself), without ONCE acknowledging, endorsing, approving or supporting what I had created.
Why?
Because my work was almost perfectly functional and totally invalidated his own agenda of debasing myself and my colleagues to such a point where the only "alternative" (short of competent management, of course), was to restructure our entire department. My systems were far more efficient than what we've been doing for years, were inherently universal and almost completely automatic, thereby reducing our artificially (managerially!) inflated workload back to "possible", and eventually, "doable".
And despite the aura of support I deliberately carry for the benefit of my colleagues who were suckered onto his team, I know their project is doomed to failure... simply because I have chosen to remove myself from said team. That may sound rather arrogant, but it's not meant to be - the remaining nine people simply do not have the level of technical understanding (either individually or as a collective) required to generate a revolutionary solution to our situation. I have destroyed my prototype and all records associated with it, and as a result, they've been forced to look outside our little ecosystem for a solution. Doing so is inherently dangerous, in my opinion, and they lack awareness of this fact. Introducing a random species into our cyberspace is just asking for trouble.
Whoda thunk technology could be so organic? I DID, and that's the point. There is no holistic appraisal of our current structure, therefore, they cannot possibly comprehend the sheer scope of what they're trying to do. Not that I'm some super-villan with an IQ in quintuple digits; I'm just a technological idiot savant, and recently, I decided to stop apologising for my abilities.
I have taken more leave in the past week and a half than I have since 2002, and I'm seriously considering taking a few more days. Before this recent crisis of functionality, I hadn't had a single day off work since about last August, and I'm supposed to get one day every fortnight.
Anyway, unless you're being credited - and I don't necessarily mean dollars - for the work you're doing (above and beyond what is expected), you're under no obligation to over-contribute. I busted my posterior for FIVE YEARS, forgoing overtime and weekends in favour of professional ethics, and all I scored was a vector of force between the appropriate vertebrate by the one person who repeatedly asked for my support - ie, my manager.
My advice is: Do the work of Jezzy, but not the work of Jezzy's group - UNLESS YOU'RE INHERENTLY CAPABLE OF IT, and even then, ONLY if your efforts are appreciated. Publicly.
Trying not to sound bitter here, but I was really cut up about the whole thing.
Funny you should describe something which seems tangentially similar.
But anyhoo.
Awwww Jezzy! (((hugs))) When everyone is back take a day off just for you. :)
I've always been the sick one myself. I admit to showing up sick at my job and teaching anyway, but you just have to understand: I'm an adjunct. I do NOT get paid if I don't show up. If I don't get paid, we don't eat.
I have no idea what it's like to make it through a year with no need for sick days. I HAVE been the only well one around before at other jobs and had to do the work. As long as they do the same for me when I have similiar issues, I don't have an issue with it. I only get mad when I do all the work periodically and everyone expects that as the norm with no reciprocation.
Fudge - my school sucked then! Vouchers? Theme parks? I hardly missed a day and got nothing!
Laura - I got stuck in my manager's office having a meeting with her all sneezing and blowing her nose. She even had that smell about her - you know that mucus-y smell people get? It's just gross. Ew!
Ginchy - yeah, and you miss out, but I'm curious to see how many people are "sick" on the day before Anzac day.
Deemacgee - um, hmmm. My friend, that is an incredibly bitter rant. I am very glad you got that off your chest. You know, these days I kinda demand credit in my own Jezzy way (which consists of me saying things like "gawd, that day you were away, it was like soooooo busy. Look - I did this and that and that! Aren't I cute and efficient and wonderful?!" and "it's been really tough only having two of us here, but look, we've managed to do such and such and we're just like sooo talented!!!") thereby ensuring that no one forgets that I'm working my arse off (okay, not really, but I *am* moving about more) while others are away.
You know, I never used to be like that, preferring to go about in my own quiet way, helping and supporting others - but blah - I'm too jaded to be sweet these days and do things thanklessly - I might be happy to be that way in my private life, but the corporate workforce is ruthless unless you make it clear that you're a Very Important Person. Hope things go your way workwise - there's nothing worse than recognising that all those around you are incompetant and that, for some strange reason, you can do, in one hour, work that the rest of them take two days to do. Oh wait, that's me. But I'm sure you're the same. Hope things get better. x
Barbara - great idea. I really need it.
Kira - yeah - you turn up and cough on everyone, dontcha? Hmmm, but that sucks not getting paid sick leave - and it's bad for your workplace that you're forced to work when you shouldn't be there. I guess some people get sick more than others. You know the nice thing to do is for me to stop whinging and be thankful that I'm healthy and can face two weeks of Hubby and workmates sneezing on me without even getting sniffly, but I'm not gonna, I'm gonna complain because I wanna get sympathy and days off too!!
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