Monday, November 12, 2007

good librarians never get sick

i was told by my new supervisor that when i have my 6 month evaluation i will be judged on two things:
1. punctuality
2. sick time used
i have to say ... i am an obsessively punctual person. i often try to be late because i hate waiting around for other people and even when i try to be late i am still on time. but last month i was late twice. the first time was because i had an alarm clock (or should i say cell phone) malfunction and i woke up late and was 20 minutes late to work. the other was due to traffic and i was about 30 minutes late. all other days i come in on time or slightly early. so when i was told that these two times that i was late, two times since i was hired in June, these two times would negatively effect my evaluation, i was pretty pissed.
now, i often complain about library-in-the-hood, but one thing that was really awesome was that my branch manager decided to be "creative" with my time sheet and did some math that is beyond my understanding and changed my timesheet so that there were no unexcused latenesses. so that was cool.
but then there is problem two. i believe i have mentioned my inability to breathe through my nose. sometimes i meet people that say things like, "oh, i never get sick," and when they say this is truly don't understand how this is possible.
"never?"
"well, maybe once a year."
"once a year?!"
"yeah, its a drag."
"what?!"
i get ill, like seriously ill, every two months. this is actually a bit of an improvement from getting sick every other month, which is what i used to do before i started taking singulair. so i pretty much use all sick time which is allotted to me. and i see nothing wrong with that. you gave me the sick time. thank you. i shall use it. all of it.
so when my supervisor said that "central" aka big brother will be watching how often i use my sick time and when i take it, (ie do i take sick time right after vacations? do i take sick time right after a three day weekend?) i knew i was screwed. i am totally the person who gets sick right after a vacation or who gets sick and wastes an entire holiday weekend laying in bed sneezing.
what is my point? my point is that i will be judged not on my performance as a librarian, but on my ability to operate an alarm clock and the quality of my immune system (i've been taking daily vitamins! does nothing!). no fair. and really, isn't it obvious who is actually sick and who is just calling in sick because they don't feel like coming to work? i know i took a mental health day last month, but i needed it. and i always feel SO guilty about not coming to work. i could contract leprosy and i would still argue with myself about whether or not i was being a "baby" by calling in sick. grrr.
again, what is my point? okay here it is ...
friday i used vacation time because i thought i was going to visit He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named ...but as you all know i did not visit said person. instead i was home moping ... but not only moping ... i was also coming down with an awful cold. so friday night, all day saturday, all day sunday i was home sick. actually, i wasn't home, i went to my mom's so i could watch cable tv and have her feed me matzoh ball soup. today i am STILL SICK. going to the doctor later. hopefully i will be better tomorrow and i will go to library-in-the-hood. but if i am still sick they will not see this as poor-girl-who-didn't-get-to-visit-her-man-and-instead-got-ill-and-wasted-a-holiday-weekend-being-sick ... they will see it as lazy-librarian-extended-her-three-day-weekend-and-now-has-the-nerve-to-call-in-sick.
i am so misunderstood.

5 comments:

*Bitch Cakes* said...

What a senseless way to conduct an evaluation. You're absolutely right- how could they evaluate your immune system and not the quality of your work?! This really annoys the crap out of me. It's just more inefficiency in practice.

*Bitch Cakes* said...

Also- I found this amusing. You said "i get ill, like seriously ill, every two months. this is actually a bit of an improvement from getting sick every other month,"

but isn't that the same thing? Doesn't every two months = every other month? Or is it just me?

Miss Dewey Decimal said...

ok ... so there is every other month ... but what do you call it if something is less than every other month? maybe i'd get sick in July, then skip august AND september and then get sick in October. what do you call that? i project that i will not get sick in november or december, but will be down for the count for at least 5 days in january.

Miss Dewey Decimal said...

oh wait, we're already in november aren't we? okay, so i won't get sick again until late january.

fifi said...

You need to go see Dr. Fu Zhang -- he's an ancient Chinese herbalist who will heal whatever ails you for about $35 a visit: 212-966-6015.

When I developed leprosy last year, the man had to lock me in the house & tell me I wasn't allowed to go to work, which meant that losing my right middle finger in the shower that morning was a complete waste. Oh well, I took a bunch of herbs & vitamins & got better.