A week of crises rolled into one morning

Do you know why? Because, no matter how well you plan things, something always blows up on the day you’re due to leave. This year, I thought I had things handled. There was a customer with an issue that they escalated on the Wednesday that NEEDED to be resolved by Friday afternoon. I don’t blame the customer as I completely understood their situation and knew they didn’t have any room to manoeuvre. Then one of the Support managers had a bright idea, pitched it, it worked, and everyone relaxed into their chairs, exhausted but happy, late Thursday afternoon.

That was it, I thought to myself, that was The Diabolical Issue That Haunts Every Leave’s Eve. For once, I had beaten the curse and was ready to slow and shut down (after writing the Support manager a heartfelt thank-you email) the following day.

Nope. That was only the teaser, the Universe taunting me like one of our kids does with a feather on a stick in front of Fluff.

Late last night, the real Diabolical Issue hit my Inbox. And, now, on the eve of my leave, I’m trying frantically to contain it. (Yes, this post will be short as a result.)

But, you see, it never fails. If I didn’t take any leave, I could handle it. But, because of a tangle of conflicting circumstances, it’s big and ugly and I only have a few hours to bed it down before the customer goes screaming to my employer demanding my head on a platter. And I don’t blame them for that either (well, not fully), because they’re in a scary place and opportunities to set expectations have been missed. I could wish they’d be a bit more reasonable, but we haven’t been working together long enough for me to be able to have that conversation with them. I could wish they’d take responsibility for their own issues, but a bit of a dependence has occurred and now’s not the time to have that tough talk with them either.

I hate taking vacations.