It’s a long story that I won’t go into, but I found myself on vacation about a month earlier than I intended. 

I didn’t have time prepare for being out of the office for an extended period, so there were a lot of loose ends to finish up.  So, the first day of vacation I worked a full shift, and tried to tie up some of those loose ends.  Then, the second day, I got a text from my boss saying an additional report was due.  I spent a couple of hours and finished up that report.  The next day, guess what?  Something else came up and I worked for about three hours that day. 

Then, I had two glorious days where I didn’t have to do anything for work…but I worried about a meeting I was going to attend the next day.  The meeting had been scheduled before I knew I was going to be on vacation.  It was like orchestrating an eclipse to get all the people scheduled for the meeting, so there was no way I was going to cancel.    The meeting was quick, but once in my office, a series of other work-related issues needed attention too.  I worked about four hours that day.  

Today, I had to go in to the office because a report that someone sent me was in some foreign computer program, and I’d taken my portion of the report home to complete, and I needed their report too.  I go to work, and guess what?  The e-mail system at work wasn’t working, so I do some other stuff while I wait for the system to come back up.  Finally, I’m able to get my co-worker’s report - and he’d attached the wrong file!  Anyway, I worked for over seven hours today. 

I think I’m done for the remainder of my vacation with the exception of the monthly Neighborhood Watch meeting I host later in the month.  That will be another 4-5 hours (preparation and then the actual meeting).

Don’t think that I’m not being compensated for this time I’m working.  Basically, I’m “saving” the vacation hours I’m not using now for use at a later date.  Now here’s the question…

Am I dedicated or dumb?  Yes, I know I’m taking a risk asking the question that way. 

The fact is, that every month there are certain reports or duties that I know need to be done.  Because my job is so geared to a particular area of the city, an area that I’m supposed be the subject matter expert, it’s not like anyone else could just whip out these reports or audits.  Had I known I was going to be on vacation now, I could have been better prepared and gotten at least some of this stuff done early.

So go ahead and weigh in.  Am I dedicated or dumb?  And you can be honest…because I think it’s a little of both!

Until next time…

KMA367

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 3:03 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.