Vacation Day

I took today off, though it meant staying at work til nearly 7:30 last night to finish up all the crap that needed to be done.



A note to all you managerial folk out there: Here's how NOT to motivate your "valued" employees to new heights of achievement and morale.



1. When they ask for a vacation day, tell them "oooookaaaaaay, IFFFF you get everything done." This, despite the fact that there's absolutely no way everything will EVER be done, on Friday or any other day--and despite the fact that you, the managerial-type person, have actually admitted that you do not know everything that the employee does even though you're supposedly her direct supervisor.



2. During the intervening four days before your employee's scheduled vacation day, ignore the employee entirely. Leave at 3 each day--in fact, hell, enjoy one of your OWN scheduled days off!



3. The day before the employee's scheduled vacation day, get there early. Spend the half-hour before your employee gets there going through four weeks of e-mail and sending an e-mail for EACH question you have. (Ten or more is optimal.) Make sure you include questions about projects that haven't been mentioned in weeks, and make sure your employee is properly ashamed of herself for not answering them long ago. (Injudicious snarkiness is always a good way to do this.) Enlist the help of one of your favorite employees to throw in a previously-unmentioned deadline on another, complicated project due that same day.



4. Schedule a two-hour meeting after lunch--just in case anyone needed to get something done before the end of the day.



I'm supposed to leave at 5. I was nearly done at 5:30; then my e-mail program went to hell. Which normally wouldn't have been a problem, except the project in question was sending mass e-mails. (Why is the tech sending mass e-mails? Because I'm the only one who has the time. Oh, wait--that's right--I don't. So...I don't know why. "Tech" in this position seems to be defined as "anything that involves using a computer in any way more challenging than typing a recipe".) I spent 40 minutes on the phone with the main IT center trying to get the mess straightened out, with no results. I ended up having to install the e-mail software on my other computer (yes, I am truly a geek--I have two computers on my desk) and re-doing about 60% of what I'd already done.



I got home about mid-way through "The Apprentice". (Which, by the way, might conceivably NOT suck as much as last season, though it's awfully early to tell. And I'm not sure whether I love or hate that Danny guy, though I'm totally rooting for the high-school grads to kick MUCH ass.)



Also--Is it wrong for a 34-year-old woman to spend her day off watching PBS Kids cartoon shows? Consciously? By choice?



Oh well.



Chicago is supposed to get WALLOPED with snow this weekend. Blogging should be frequent.