Several years ago a dear friend from church moved to West-by-God-Virginia. Her daughter just graduated from high school, and we have been working for quite some time on plans for said daughter to spend Monday with The Squire and me. Talk a bit, have a cuppa, play with the Blazer (whom she adores). maybe a trip to IKEA for lunch, and just generally hex around.
When I checked my email about an hour ago, there was a message from a local company, saying the regular operator was taking off for her birthday – and I would be taking the switchboard for the day! This was a CC between the operator and HR, not even sent directly to me, other than what seemed to be an afterthought. I wonder if it had been discussed to the point everyone assumed I’d been included from the beginning.
Normally, this is no problem, as I like working there, and I usually don’t have anything else going on that can’t be shuffled around; it’s one of top-10 Best Places to Work, the people with whom I do work are delightful, and switchboards being what they are, I generally get paid reasonably well to read a book. However, it would be nice to have a bit of advance warning. For all they know, I could be in the middle of an ocean voyage, scheduled for open heart surgery, or any number of other things which would render me unable to show up at 8 AM on Monday.
As it is, I am the only switchboard operator on the payroll, other than the regular gal, and I have too much self-respect (or whatever) to refuse. I’ve written to my friend to see if her daughter can come on Tuesday – maybe spend Monday night here in our fancy new guest room, and head off early on Tuesday, or any number of other options.
And we are going to have a little talk at work about taking people for granted.
thisendoftheswamp 