01 January 2009

My Smile

I've been on vacation since Christmas Eve. I was SO looking forward to just hanging out at home, maybe doing a few projects around the house, spending some quality time with my husaband and children.

I knew I'd have to log in to my work a bit each day - I am a one person IT department after all - and I was okay with that. I could take care of a few things so my desk wasn't a complete disaster when I returned. Yay for remote access!!

When I was called on Christmas morning, I was annoyed but happy that it wasn't during the ripping and tearing. It happened during a lull and I was alright with the diversion that was driving to the office to bring our servers back on line after the power outage.

When I was called on Monday morning I was a tad more annoyed but knew a lot of people were depending on me to bring the systems back up so they could get their work done.

The New Years Eve call wasn't a thrill, but I'd only had a couple of glasses of wine and the children had just gone up to bed - so at least the drive in to the office didn't compete with our celebration. I was home by 11:00 and actually stayed up to see the ball drop - a first in several years. It would have been more fun if Daddy-O was still up too...

The call this morning, though, sent me over the edge. The issues are thankfully minor and are fairly quick to take care of, but seriously. This is my VACATION. I'm so tired of this and I don't really know what to do. There isn't a simple fix. I know this is "job security" but come on. I have no doubt that I'll be called several more times over the remainder of the weekend.

The smile you saw on the picture below is gone. All the good this "vacation" has done is gone.

I'm sitting at my desk right now trying to calm myself and convince myself not to write my resignation letter and leave it on my boss's desk.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally see your frustration. My advice...your next vacation should be taken in another state...where you can't get there to fix the problems. It will force your office to get a backup. By going in, unless you ageed to it in contract that all your vacations would be spent at home within arms reach you are enabling their bad behavior. I vote for scheduling your next vacation in the Bahamas! On that note, Have a wonderful New Year and i enjoy visitng here often!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Noble Pig! I worked for UPS as a manager for years and Vacation was not in the cards. EVER Especially around the holidays. Anyway. happy new year and all that jazz and KEEP YOUR CHIN UP!

She She said...

Oh, Mama Goose. This reminds me of my last two maternity leaves where I told my boss I'd be available for "emergencies". Who knew there would be so many? The two words that describe those leaves are resentful and cheated. But I got over it (mostly).

Breathe, sister.

ChristineM said...

I, too, was on vacation over the holidays and got two phone calls. The thing that peeved me was that neither was about something that could not have waited until January 5th.... I almost felt like they were flexing or something. Like, we know we CAN call you, so we WILL!

Oh well, Happy New Year! And here's to wishing you uninterrupted vacation time in 2009! ;)

FishermansDaughter said...

To echo all the wise(r) women before me and donning my best Dr. Phil voice, (exclusively for humorous effect) 'eww teach peeple how to treeet ewww" Chin up buttercup. It's a New Year!

Gorgeous photo btw. Serene even.

Familia said...

I hope you don't have to take vacation days for that time. Everyday you go in should be a work day!

My last vacation was like that too. They called me twice a day. But at least during this break non one else is in my office either. It's going to fun logging in again tomorrow morning - arggh!