Better off Well

Yesterday I got taken down by some stomach bug. I was in the office and trying to soldier through the day until I started running a fever, then got the chills, and then got, well, sick. Getting sick is never a fun thing, but having it happen at work is always such an ordeal. I let my bosses know that I was going to need to leave early -- I left about 3:30. Things were under control, Asst. was fine and could cover anything that may come up. I mean really in the big picture, I was technically just leaving an hour and a half early.

I laid low last night, tried to recoup, but this morning still felt under the weather. So I let all my bosses know, let Asst and HR in my DC office know, and updated an out of office message to direct people to contact Asst. in my absence. Should be okay, right? I mean people get sick and the world hasn't ended before, right?

Wrong. So. Very. Wrong.

As they are wont to do, some lawyer waited until the last minute for help with something very important and very time sensitive. One of the biggest stresses of the law firm environment is that EVERYthing is very important and time sensitive, so it all feels a bit like working for a million Chicken Littles.

So the email came in at 11 and I missed it because I had gone back to sleep for awhile because I was just not feeling so hot (I mean, people often sleep on their sick days, right?) When I finally saw it just before 1pm I immediately got the request out to the appropriate people to help him but was told I was just too damn late. I should have responded right away.

My out of office message was on with clear instructions on what to do if there was an immediate an urgent need. If they ignored that email and were still waiting for someone to get them what they needed, then pick up the phone and start calling people. There's a million things that could have been done to solve this issue. But they just let time pass and then got really angry with me for not being in the office.

I brought in one of my bosses (Because anyone with half a brain knows that good or bad, bring your boss in early on something like this. It's better for them to hear about it from you first.) and she sent a great email about the situation, that in times where something is time-critical to cc the marketing department in the office you are in so that we call all be on the same page and get done what needs to get done. She noted that unfortunately I was out sick today and had contact instructions on my out of office.

Then the two partners snapped back that they received no out of office. Oh give me a break. It was on, I even then emailed myself from my personal account to double check. I then had to go and CALL IT so that they could confirm it for me so that when the two partners continued to complain that I had not turned my OOO message on, I could get some technical back up.

So the long and short of it is I did everything I was supposed to. I notified the proper people about my need to use a sick day today. I have been working for the last three-plus hours on trying to do as much as I can since I am not physically in the office. And none of it has been good enough. In fact, I can't tell if the pains in my stomach now are illness related, or anxiety about going in to the office tomorrow to get yelled at some more.

Sorry this post wasn't very humorous or insightful -- it was really just me complaining. But I am having one of those days where I just feel so frustrated by, tired of, and basically OVER my job and am struggling to find a way to make peace with it. I guess at least tomorrow is Friday?