Some of you know I’ve been sick for the past two weeks. Mostly just a cold – lots of nasal congestion which leads to lots of coughing. Had a fever last Sunday, but it wasn’t serious. Last week was sucky since I was at work even though I was sick for most of the week. Went to NYC this past weekend, still sick. Travel + sick = more sick than before the travel. So I decided not to go to work Monday. Stayed home and worked a half day instead. My boss was out of town and the office was mostly empty anyway, so I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. Sent my boss an email letting him know where I was, and called his cell phone twice (he didn’t answer either time).
Apparently Monday when I felt like shit, I turned my alarms off so they didn’t wake me up while I was re-sleeping. This was a bad idea, since I didn’t remember to turn them back on before I went to sleep Monday night. Needless to say, I woke up incredibly late Tuesday, and since my boss was still out of town, decided to throw the sick but working from home card in again so I didn’t have to be late. I actually did a decent amount of work yesterday, unlike what happens when I usually “work from home” (read WoW). Sent my boss another email, and missed a few of his calls because …. I silenced them. But I returned every one of them, a few minutes later, and he never answered. Even left a voice mail! This morning, before I’m even supposed to be at work, I get a voice mail from him. Phone didn’t even ring, just told me I had voice mail. Don’t you hate that?
His voice mail this morning is upset and bordering on angry. Paraphrasing, “I haven’t heard from you in 3 days, etc. etc. You don’t answer my calls, You’re responsible to me for your time, etc. etc. You need to call me, or at least email me if that’s easier for you. I need to know where you are.” … Yea okay…. 1) I’ve emailed you multiple times. Don’t tell me to email you if you’re not going to check your email first. 2) I’ve called you multiple times and left messages. Don’t tell me to call if you’re not going to answer. 3) I’m shaving my damn face off right now so I can come in to work even though I’m still coughing my head off. Don’t tell me you haven’t spoken to me in 3 days if it’s the third day now and I’ll be there in 20 minutes! So I got his voice mail, and immediately called him back. He didn’t answer. Surprised? No, me neither. So I left him a message summarizing points 1 2 and 3 in a very nice way, proceeded to finish getting ready and come in to work.
I get to work and don’t even make it to my office to put down my bag before he calls me in to his office. But, this is not at all surprising to me, since he think I’ve been missing for three days … yes, 3 days at 9 am on Wednesday …
I go into his office and explain to him that I have emailed him multiple times and called him back every time he called me, and he never once answered. I also left voice mail messages which he didn’t check. His major complaint was that he didn’t know where I was yesterday, but that someone in the office had told him I was on AIM all day. Well, yea, I was on AIM all day because I was sitting at home working like I had tried to tell him. But did he read his email? No. Did he realize that I show up on AIM even when I’m not there because messages get forwarded to my phone? Not until after he left the nasty voice mail.
“So are you taking two days of PTO (Personal Time Off)?”
“No, I was working for 12 of those 16 hours. I’ll make up the rest on Saturday, like my emails said.”
“Oh. Well I just want to make sure you get your work done.”
“Thats why I was working instead of just taking the days off.”
“Okay.”
Pwnd. Don’t call ME incommunicado if you can’t/don’t check your email and can’t/don’t answer your phone when I call! RAH!
I love my job.