"as the stomach turns"

[Charlene]

four weeks down and two to go and i'll have my 4-day work week back. i can't WAIT!!! it has been SO intense at the office. i have found myself having to reach back into the long-forgotten recesses of my brain and drag out what little knowledge i possess of civil law. i can't WAIT till amy comes back to work!!!

liz and i had lunch with amy on friday and she says she is anxious to get back to work and back to her old routine. i thought to myself...i hope her old routine doesn't include calling in sick 3 days a week! OH!

the temp we hired is doing a pretty good job although she has taken a little too much liberty with certain things. liz has given her a few "slam dunk" divorces to work on, all of which have statutory wording in some paragraphs. she thought it would sound better her way. i have had to re-do most of what she's worked on. oh well.

i'm so exhausted every day when i get home, i pretty much do chores, walk around the farm a bit with the dogs and then i crash. friday evening i stepped out on to the deck to water some flowers and got stung by a wasp right on the knuckle of my left hand. this is the second time in about 3 weeks i have been stung by one of those little boogers! the last time, it was on my ear and that one sent me to the doctor to get relief from the horrible itching. i didn't think anything could itch so bad but i was wrong. my entire arm itches to the point where the only relief i can get is to plunge it into a pitcher of ice water every few minutes. i've had virtually NO sleep the past 2 nights so i'm hoping tomorrow will be a quiet day. yeah, right! lol! i think i am on the verge of a serious allergic reaction to these stings and i will call my doctor tomorrow to discuss my options.

so, that's where i'm at!

 

[twister]

Charlene, your schedule sounds like mine, but you should get yourself to the Dr right away, you could be working up to a serious reaction to wasp stings and that isn't something to play with. Look after yourself your forum friends need you

Yvonne

 

[HGFarm]

Oh Charlene,

Sorry about your wasp sting- OW! Yes, certainly keep an eye on those.

With the temp, how come nobody tells her she can't change the verbiage and makes her fix her own mistakes? I bet she would not keep making them. You cannot keep exhausting yourself by covering for everyone else, whether it's Amy, the temp or whoever. They need to be responsible for THEIR OWN jobs. That is not your place to keep doing that. You are spread too thin and it will set you further and further behind and folks will wonder why YOU dont do such as wonderful a job as those you are covering for!!

I was hoping Amy was going to find something else.... dang. I fear her brief 'vacation' has not changed her work ethics or human habits in this short time frame (and they wont because she knows she can get away with it all and that she will be 'covered' when she screws up) and she will just fall right back into the habits she has.

I would hand the papers back to the temp and just nicely asked what happened to the verbiage that was originally written and that those things cannot be changed, so it would be great if she would correct those right away....

 

[Charlene]

yeah, i'll call and talk to my doctor tomorrow. i don't have TIME to be sick!

HG, i thought about approaching it the way you suggest regarding the temp but to be honest, it's just easier for me to go into her computer when she isn't there, copy/paste the wording as it should be and call it swell. i only have another couple of weeks to deal with it so i'll just continue to go in early and work during lunch.

as for amy, liz has told me repeatedly that once she comes back, the first time she calls in sick, she will be told that her pay will be docked. amy and her family are stretched as thin as they can be at this point and even one day of missed pay would have an impact. several weeks ago, liz told me the first time amy calls in sick, she will be FIRED so she's backing up a little but during lunch on friday, amy told us how much better she was feeling so i have high hopes. i don't know, maybe i'm setting myself up for disappointment. only time will tell.

as for amy's "lifestyle", i know that won't change but i also know if she falls back into the old habit of wanting to tell me all the sordid details, i will remind her in no uncertain terms that i don't care to hear about it.

bleh!!!

 

[Magic]

as for amy, liz has told me repeatedly that once she comes back, the first time she calls in sick, she will be told that her pay will be docked. amy and her family are stretched as thin as they can be at this point and even one day of missed pay would have an impact. several weeks ago, liz told me the first time amy calls in sick, she will be FIRED so she's backing up a little but during lunch on friday, amy told us how much better she was feeling so i have high hopes. i don't know, maybe i'm setting myself up for disappointment. only time will tell.

I hope that Liz will at least stick to docking Amy's pay when (not IF) she calls in sick. It's a pattern with her, it isn't going to change unless the consequences for doing so are more than she is willing to bear.

Please do get to the doctor asap-- we don't want another wasp or bee sting to put you in the hospital or worse!!

 

[Sue_C.]

For the wasp sting, get some Benydryl for allergies, and take one a day until it is gone down. You sound like you will likely get worse every time, just like my husband. He now has the Epenephrine needle, as the mnext sting will likely kill him if he doesn't use it. He has also been told to take a Benedryl tablet ASAP after a sting as well as the needle.

 

[CyndiM]

Oh Charlene I feel so sorry for you.

First that you got stung again and second that it sounds like work will go back to the same ol' same ol' in two weeks and you will suffer again.

[SIZE=18pt]((((HUGS)))) [/SIZE]

 

[AppyLover2]

Charlene, for what it's worth, I agree with Laurie. You aren't doing your temp any favors by making the changes for her....because unless she's told about them she doesn't know she's making mistakes. It might be "easier" to do them yourself but you are being unfair....both to yourself and to her. Be sure and call that Dr tomorrow about those stings.

 

[SampleMM]

I see my favorite soap opera is back on the air.

Just kidding Charlene, I too feel bad for you and am going through a rough time at work as well. I would have to call mine Survivor. It is an ongoing power struggle between myself and the Classified Ad Manager. She won't listen to any of my directions and last week I ended up giving her a warning and she cried.

If she would just do her job instead of trying to defy me things would be fine but no we can't do that. It would be far too easy

On a side note but very important**********Charlene you will never believe what I found growing in my back yard. Three purple petunia plants. I used to have those every year but since I moved to this monstrosity of a house I really don't have time for flowers. I wonder how those got there?

 

[Soggy Bottom Ranch]

Ouch!

Darn bees! I know exactly how that feels! Two weeks ago I got stung in the stomache 2x, and where I was stung each swelled pretty good. The itch was AWEFUL!!!! It burned it itched so bad! What finally worked for me was benedryl cream, it worked almost imediately to relieve the pain and itch, and only took a couple more applications to make it better. Mine stayed red and swollen for like a week though!

Hope it feels better soon!

 

[stormo41]

hey Charlene, I know exactly how you feel about having to re-do peoples work. There is a part time girl at my workplace who only comes in 2 to 3 days a week and her job is to make my job easier. But she makes it harder, she leaves her work half done and then i do don't know where she was at and have to do it all over again. Or she just wont get how important it is that an costumer's order is done and ready to go at least the night before the pick up date and i'm spending my morning playing catch up and dealing with very angry customers. I also feel she gets treated unfairly because she is my boss's neighbor. She gets all the days she wants off and last summer we had a part timer with us that acted very much like her and was gone with in her first month. This girl is even so bold to write out a list at the start of each month with days she NEEDS off or else she will die i guess. But last summer when i started working there i couldn't hardly get any time off because i was in training....i don't get it. I have already talked to my boss about having to re-do and finish her work and he said he will talk to her about it, i'd rather him just fire her and give me her wages.

anyway i'm rambling, the point was i get that you finish and/or redo her work for her because it's probably the kind of thing that needs to be done right now not when she comes in next. (maybe i can start my own workplace drama lol)

-Vanessa

 

[Charlene]

vanessa, i hear ya!! a couple of times, the temp thought she had everything in order and actually called the client to come in and sign the petition for divorce. when i learned of this, i scrambled to look over what she had done only to find that she had given custody of the dog TO THE WRONG PERSON!

it was just easier to re-do it since i was under a serious time constraint.

amy is scheduled to come back to work a week from tomorrow so we'll see how things go. i'm pretty darn sure liz is intent on NOT paying her if she misses work. she is well beyond her allotted days off. i've been here 4 years, amy's been here 9 years. the first year or so, we kept track of days off. after that, because neither of us abused it and liz didn't have a problem, we stopped keeping track. if one of us needed or wanted an extra day, we took it as long as our work was caught up. but, when i came back to work the week after gary's funeral, that's when things started going to h**l in a handbasket! liz started keeping track of amy's days and the more she was gone, the more upset liz became.

so, i am really hoping that when she comes back, she buckles down. if she wants to keep this job, she will HAVE to because there are quite a few of her files languishing on her desk. liz has told me to leave them for her. they are things that the temp couldn't possibly do so when amy gets back here, she won't have any trouble staying busy and her online chatting will likely come to a screeching halt. maybe!

MM! lmao!!! gary's up to his old tricks again!! don't know if you remember but for his mom's birthday, i dug up and potted 3 little purple petunias that magically appeared in my yard and i gave them to her, from him. just yesterday, i walked up to see nana and that pot of petunias is absolutely HUGE and sooooo pretty!!

geri, i would give my right arm and my left leg if benadryl helped! i have yet to find an OTC medication that relieves the itch. it's much better today, i only had to get up every couple of hours last night to plunge my hand into ice water. LOL! i'm calling my doctor this morning as soon as the clinic opens to talk to her about an epi-pen. every time i walk outside and hear something buzzing, i get the heebeejeebees!!!

sue, was it your husband referred to in that thread? i am SO glad he recovered!!! that had to be so scary! i know i need to take this seriously because i am 30 minutes from the nearest hospital. ugh!

 

[HGFarm]

The only problem with covering someone else's work, is that for the time you spend on REdoing that, you could have done a bunch more of your own- and you are not getting the pay for two jobs, on top of the fact they should be responsible for their own stuff. If I was making a mistake, I would die if someone didnt point it out to me!

I know the story of the purple flowers (that is so cool). Is there a connection to the number 3 in some way? That seems to be popping up too, in addition to the flowers!

 

[minie812]

WOW...er-I mean SHAMWOW Charlene, I thought for a while you had taken Muk-Luk and Ashley and high tailed (s'cuse the pun) to Alaska for the Idinerod or something. Will Amy realized what a nice job she has?...Will she drag her kiddies back to work with her?...Will Charlene get fed up and sick the "PACK" on Amy?...WOW, I can't wait for more of "AS THE STOMACH CHURNS" OH!

 

[Charlene]

actually HG, since it's all cutting/pasting, it really doesn't take me all that long to correct what needs to be done. i wouldn't dream of doing this sort of thing if i was training in a new employee but since she's a temp, it's just easier this way. tomorrow will be her last day with us since amy's due back on tuesday. i am SOOOO looking forward to getting my life and my 3-day weekends back!

hmmm, i can't think of a connection to the number "3" (unless it refers to my long lost 3-day weekends LOL) but i bet if i think long enough, i'd come up with something.

minie, i can't move from here, i love this place far too much but hey, if somebody wants to bring the tundra-like weather TO me, i'll happily take it! i do hope amy realizes how good she has it, her kids are in school so i won't be putting up with THAT, and the only damage the PACK could do would be to lick her to death.

stay tuned for updates and in the meantime, somebody stuff a sock in billy mays' mouth!

 

[Valerie]

Wow, Charlene, you poor thing....how's the sting feeling this evening?

When we were growing up, if we were unfortunate enough to get stung (and who wasn't as a kid?)....Mom would make a paste of water & baking soda......

of course now that I am allergic to basically everything, I carry an emergency pack of pills on me.....

Wow, hope you are feeling better.........

I sure hope your boss sticks to her guns....... you need a sign in your office like the one I just bought & put on my desk....it says ....

"Put on your big girl panties and just deal with it"....... I don't know who came up with the saying, but it sure fits some of the whiney people I work with......I just cracked up when I read it & now it is sitting in my cubicle, so I can chuckle everyday.

 

[Charlene]

my hand is MUCH better, still a little itchy but not enough to keep me awake. i did get a couple of epi-pens from my doctor so, if i can remember to carry one with me when i'm outside, i'm good to go!

my boss recently told me that she will dock amy's pay if she calls in sick. it will only take one time, amy can't afford even ONE day w/o pay so i'm pretty sure she will buckle down. she has no more excuses. at lunch last week, she told us both that she feels like a million bucks so i guess we'll see. she's due to be back on tuesday. i plan to work tuesday-friday, help her get back into the swing and then i'm taking a week off!!! i need to decompress, the past few weeks have been downright brutal!!!

LOL love the sign! i used to have one that said "would you like a little WHINE with your cheese?"

 

[minie812]

Charlene...I have been stung numerous times this summer and each time it swells more and hurts more. I take the Benedryl and baking soda paste on the sting and wrap it up it will draw the poison from you

 

[Charlene]

minie, i'll have to remember that. i always have baking soda around. when i got stung on my ear, the itching was so intense! i had to tie my hair up, i couldn't even stand to have ONE hair touch my ear. i didn't think anything could be worse but i was wrong. when i got stung on my hand, i itched from my fingertips to my elbow.

i talked to amy last night, her doctor released her yesterday to come back to work. YIPEEEE!!!!!

 

[HGFarm]

Yikes, I would keep those pens handy cause if it gets worse every time it happens, and the reaction was that bad, that's not a good thing and I dont think baking soda is going to help (that's what my Mom used to do when we got stung/bit by something too) Maybe you could carry a giant fly swatter?! (As someone calls the cops because Charlene is running wildly back and forth down the street yelling and swinging a big fly swatter in the air as she goes..... some might swear they think she was even frothing at the mouth) LOL

No really, hope you dont have a worse reaction to those nasty things!