Uhhh... Work?

I almost lost it when a co-worker (actually subordinate, but I was never a fan of the boss-subordinate thing so let me call her my co-worker) "advised" me that she will not be able to make it to work AGAIN for two days next week.  Because she will be attending a baptism and a family reunion on days when she is supposed to be working.

It would not have been difficult to see through the obvious neglect of responsibilities if it were not her NTH time to ask for permission to miss days of work!  She has incurred more absences than me and my boss combined, and she has only been with the company for barely three months!!!  And she was telling me this (actually she texted me) after being absent for two days this week because of some family emergency, and for three days last week because apparently she was sick.

When I texted her back and told her that she is needed at the office, she replied,

"So you mean I can't attend the baptism and the reunion? :-("

When she told me she couldn't report for work because she gets high fever every night, I asked her who would cover for her while she's away.  She replied:

"My doctor advised me to take a rest, do you need anything from me?"

Uhhh.. THAT YOU WORK LIKE EVERYONE ELSE????!!!!

This coming from a person who named her price before even submitting her resume to our HR, and demanded that she only work 5 days per week, and that every Friday, she be allowed to leave one hour earlier because she is currently attending classes for WORK-LIFE BALANCE.

You have got to be kidding me lady!!!  

Call me a monster or a slave-driver, but I will not tolerate such inconsideration of one's responsibilities.  It is just not right to abandon your assignments or leave your duties for someone else to cover for you, thinking that you are "entitled" to these bland absences just because you have leave privileges.  It is just not right.

And it is sad that there are people like her, who would have had so much potential to influence others positively or help the company increase its bottom-lines, if they would just have the maturity to take on responsibilities.  They see their jobs as just...jobs.  Something that they can easily take for granted because they feel that they can always find another should they lose the ones they have now.  And when they do find a new assignment, they will apply the same method of being at the work place only when they feel like it.  And lose that job again.

Maybe they don't need the money as much as I do.  Or maybe they have what it takes to transfer from one company to another because of connections or Ivy League education.  Or maybe they are just plain lazy.  I will never understand.

All I know is that these kinds of people are no more than glorified bums who think that the world owes them their time and effort to work and be useful members of the society.  And it will take more than a year's perfect attendance under their names before I start taking them seriously.

I do not hold the world's record on Employee Who Was Never Absent.  I've had my share of emergencies and family obligations and I had to ask for time off from work to be with the people who need me more.  But I never abandoned my responsibilities.  I don't feel right when I know someone else is doing my job for me.  I don't think it is fair that my company pay me for days I spent for my personal affairs when I should be working on my desk. 

Once I was training a class of about 25 to 27 call center agents when I had one of my worst migraine attacks.  I could barely see two feet ahead of me and I knew I needed to be taken to the hospital right away.  I dismissed my class for lunch and asked them to be back after an hour.  I asked a colleague to drive me to the hospital.

I was nauseated and throwing up when we got in the emergency room.  I was led to a stretcher while a doctor administered pain killers straight to my veins.  I dozed off immediately.

After 20 minutes, I woke up to find our HR beside my bed asking how I was.  She said she has made arrangements to get me a room so I can stay overnight and be observed further by the doctors.  I sat up and realized that the pain is gone.  I tested my vision, everything is back to normal.

I asked the doctor to kindly remove the needles attached to my hand.  I wanted to go back to work.  They made me sign a waiver, removed the needles, and let me go.

Before my class was back from lunch break, I was already in the training room waiting for them. 

No one in the office, except our HR and the trainer who drove me to the hospital, knew what I had to go through.  No one had to know.  I went back to work not because I wanted to be heralded as a martyr, but because I knew no one else can do my job for me.  I didn't want anybody doing my job for me.

I hope someday, this co-worker would realize the value of having a job is just as important as anything else that she can probably think of as reasons not to report for work.  I hope that she finds a job that she will love and respect, just as much as she would want to be respected as an individual (because right now, I only see her as a glorified bum).  And that she would see beyond the assignments, and realize that she has RESPONSIBILITIES that she has to carry out.

Until then, she needs grace.  Period.