I purposely booked my wisdom teeth surgery for a Thursday before a long weekend so that I had 5 full days to recover, and only miss 2 days of work. But when Monday (Family Day for us Ontarians) rolled around, it was clear that I was in no shape to go back to work on Tuesday as planned – especially not for a 13 hour day (9am-5pm at my “regular” Education job, and then 6-10pm to Stage Manage the rehearsal) considering I hadn’t even been awake for a total of 13 hours combined in the 4 days prior! Had their not been rehearsal that night, my bosses wouldn’t even notice I wasn’t there, but of course, stage managing is always more important then my actual job or my physical (and mental) well-being…
I debated going in for the evening only, but my coworker who was also looking after me sensibly convinced me not to push it. So I called in sick, had major guilt about it, and had a restless night full of anxiety dreams.
I knew there was no one easily available to fill in for me for rehearsal. I knew that it would fall on “G”, another co-worker who’s had to pseudo-fill-in for me before. I knew she wasn’t going to be able to do it (she works 3 other jobs to support her currently disabled husband and 2 kids). And I knew my boss would yell at her for not being available (because he’s done it before, not 2 weeks ago).
What I didn’t know is that this would be the last straw for G. I didn’t know that she would march into our bosses office and hand-over her 2 weeks notice. One boss tried to get to her to reconsider, while the other threw a temper tantrum like the full-grown man-child he is.
I finally had the chance to talk to G this afternoon, and she reassured me that she doesn’t blame me for any of this, but I still feel guilty. If I’d sucked it up and went to work, the boss wouldn’t have been on a rampage, wouldn’t have taken it out on her, and she would still have this job.
Chances are that it was only a matter of time before he flipped out at her over something else and she would be out the door anyways, but playing the middle-man in this scenario sucks. Mostly because I wish I had the guts to walk out the door with her.
Miss Amanda 101 