I Said, “I’m Sick Today”. I Let the Team Down. I Don’t Care
Photo by Mario Gogh on Unsplash
I should be ashamed of myself. I have reached an age and am in a position where I should not be saying I’m ill when I’m not.
It’s not cool to drop your colleagues into trouble. You should take on your share of the burden of work. Not lie. Be your best self.
Last week I did none of those things.
Enjoy the sun
Last week was one of those ones. We were approaching the end of the summer dog days, which might make any software developer think “I’ll just take the day off”. You might wake up worse for wear and decide to phone your boss.
The fact is that I did something worse than that.
Why o’ why take an unplanned vacation?
This is the problem. It wasn’t an unplanned day at all. I decided to move house during the working day, without taking an official day off.
That does not make any sense at all. Removal vans were booked. Arrangements were made in advance but The Secret Developer decided to steal a couple of days from their employer.
It’s not (just) because I hate them.
The reason? As ever it’s a process that doesn’t make sense.
Perverse incentives
I’ve written many times about my employer on this blog. They can’t manage, and their low expectations affect my mental health.
Even for The Secret Developer, that type of organizational behavior would not be enough to (effectively) steal vacation days. So, what are the issues?
Sick days are not recorded
You should give up to 9 weeks' vacation notice
I could book my moving services the week before I needed to move down to the day. Yet changing my vacation the week before taking it would be an issue. Let me explain.
Booking a vacation or just taking it
I took a weeks vacation earlier in the year. Tuesday to Monday or something similar. Booked months in advance as we plan work units in quarters and the team would like to know when you won’t be available.
Then I found the flights were cheaper for Wednesday to Tuesday. Changed the booking on the system. Nobody looked at it after approval (which I needed to ask for about 5 times, but anyway).
Then confusion rained.
“The Secret Developer when are you taking that vacation?”
“Are you here on Tuesday”
“When are you back”
You see nothing is written down for the team to share. Essential resources can all take the same days. Nobody is in control of what is going on.
It’s easier just to go for a couple of days rather than cause confusion if things change.
I should be ashamed of this attitude. FWIW I don’t think blaming the company is enough and does not excuse this type of appalling employee behavior.
Luckily after my “mini” break, nobody asked how I was. I didn’t block anything as seemingly no work got completed in my absense (nothing usually gets done in a few days here anyway)
No body, no crime in this case then?
Conclusion
Either I was untrustworthy when entering this job and it should have been caught at the interview, or I’ve picked it up here.
Honestly, I’m writing this blog post clockwatching for the end of the day.
I can’t wait for August to be over. The job market to pick up and me to be in a new job.