After a mostly successful vacation, it was return to work day today. I figured it was going to be a bit of a crapshoot in terms of what all transpired while I was away, and I guess you could say I wasn’t terribly disappointed. Certainly, some things could have been done better, but at least it didn’t take me a few days to “right the ship” as it were.
It would be reasonable to say I was missed, if only to the point where all involved were happy that I was back to take the place of the people that were doing my job while I was gone. Seeing as it wasn’t just -one- person accomplishing this, as it turned out it as a collaborative effort, and with that sort of arrangement, things tend to get missed. It didn’t take me long to uncover the things that did, and since the department manager wasn’t working, (he never works Sundays, and more often than not doesn’t schedule himself for weekends as long as he can get away with it) I was forced to inquire of my co-workers why this or that wasn’t accomplished, what’s the reason this or that was missed and so on. What ensued was a big game of ‘blame anyone but myself’ which was counterproductive.
Thankfully, the day went relatively quickly, and I discovered by looking at the schedule, said department manager screwed up mine, by not having me come in at the usual hour tomorrow. Of course even with that oversight, I can get my usual Monday work accomplished, seeing as I’ll have 2 uninterrupted hours after he and his assistant manager designate leave at 2 pm. That at the very least will be welcome.
I won’t be having another week’s vacation until at least April or May. So, I have time to keep things on the straight and narrow, and hopefully get my usual backup more seasoned so he’s not so much flustered when it’s his turn to cover my hours. At least that’s the plan. We’ll see where it goes.