Like almost everybody else, I dragged myself out of bed into the cold dark morning and hauled myself back into the office today for the first time in 2010. I worked the dead-time between Christmas and New Year - well, I was *at* work - so I suppose in theory it shouldn't be such a shock to my system as it is for those of my colleagues who took a whole two week break around the bank holidays. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to make it any easier this morning when the alarm went off and I had to brave the cold morning as C -- who has now finished work -- was able to turn over and go back to sleep.
If there's one thing that should console me, it's the thought that there's now only three weeks to go before I start my extended 8 month break from work. Actually, it seems to make things harder. Tempting though it might be to just sit twiddling my thumbs until I skip out of the doors for the last time, it's not really in my nature. I had a conversation with my boss at the end of November where I agreed with him that this was absolutely not what I wanted to be doing, and that we would find something productive for me to focus on in my remaining time rather than just letting it dribble away. Call me a fool, but there seems nothing surer to make the time drag than having nothing useful to do. I'd far rather have something to keep me busy than to spend all day surfing the web and trying to LOOK busy.
.....given that my departure has still not been formally announced and there are currently no plans in place to cover my absence, manage my customers or to pick up any of my projects whilst I'm away, perhaps it's not really all that surprising that I've just spent all day twiddling my thumbs. I suppose that this is the natural result of having no one to hand over to and there being no point in picking up anything new.... but I find myself angry that things are dribbling out as a direct result of my department's total failure to plan for -- or frankly to even acknowledge -- my departure.
Ultimately I suppose this isn't really my problem.....but I just hope my remaining 14 working days pass a little quicker than this one.
Why kick up such a fuss about only granting me 26 weeks discretionary unpaid leave if you're then not going to give me anything to do in the weeks before I go? What a collosal waste of everyone's time. Nice though it is to be paid for doing nothing, I've frankly got better things to do than to follow the over-by-over cricket from Cape Town and count down the minutes to hometime.
Work is bobbins at the best of times, but when you haven't actually got any work to do, it's even worse. 22nd January can't come quickly enough. Fourteen working days to go. And counting.
....or if I was a "glass half empty" kind of a guy, 252 days until it's all over and I'm supposed to be back at work lest they start disciplinary proceedings against me (oh, bestill my beating heart).
Now there's a cheery thought. At least I'll have 200-odd days away from this shit inbetween-times, right?
Not yet sherlocked
6 days ago
I once did a job as a supposed web forum tester where I had absolutely nothing to do.
ReplyDeleteSounds fun? After the second day, I was almost climbing the walls. I had to take coffee breaks just to escape the cubicle I was in. My boss constantly re-assured me work would come flooding in; just the day after tomorrow.
Six painfully long weeks later, I was pulled into the office of my bosses and told, quite bluntly, that I was not suited for my role and fired on the spot.
I discovered later that the company whose forum I was going to support had gone into liquidation.
But, yeah, doing nothing at work is even more painful than being overworked.
A little disturbing, isn't it, to discover that absolutely nobody will miss you when you're gone.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope they know who you are when you get back.