The things I have to deal with at work. Am I on glue or is she contradicting herself? Please read the emails below.

Mary
I informed you that Mario's orientation was being reschedule to 3/13. However, he wasn't not informed of this change and needless to say he wasn't not pleased. ePAFs must be approved and in the system by the Tuesday before orientation Friday in order to confirm employee's participation. This was not the case for Mario's request... The Training team had to handle his frustrations when this could have easily been avoided. -Rodrigo

Rodrigo

I understand your frustration but I have to wait for HR approval before I create the epaf. The approval email came to me from HR on 2/18/09 and I immediately created the epaf. My department approved it on 2/19/09 and then it's out of our hands. -Mary

Mary

"Out of my hands" is not the best philosophy to abide by because ultimately, the employee is the one penalized. As the originators of a request, it's the department's responsibility to follow up and ensure that the request is completed and processed in a timely manner. This specific ePAF sat in one of your approver's worklist for one week. Mario is the one who got frustrated, not me. He is the one who got caught in the middle of all this... -Rodrigo

Rodrigo,
"Out of my hands" is not a philosophy I abide by. I always follow up and ensure that all ePAF's are processed on time. I do agree that the employees pay and benefits should ultimately be the matter of interest. While everyone always tries to facilitate services correctly, errors may occur.
-Mary

I used to say that I did not need to take a vacation. Most people thought I was insane for saying that because everyone needs a vacation, a break longer than the weekend.

I guess I used to like my job more than I do now. No, I don't guess, I did use to like my job more than I do now. For a while, I LOVED going to work. I enjoyed what I did, I enjoyed who I worked with, staying from 8am to 8pm was not a challenge at all. Taking time off just meant that there would be more to do when I returned. And who likes playing catch up?

Well, time has passed and I guess I''m getting older. I still don't feel that I need a vacation longer than the weekend however I enjoy the time away from work more and more and more and more and more and more. I wonder if that is the equivalent to needing a vacation... hmmm....

After this last vacation, which I enjoyed THOROUGHLY, coming back to work and getting back into the swing of things has been extremely difficult. I enjoyed the time away so much because of the place, because of the people, because of the activities, that getting back to my routine has been awfully depressing. I'm currently doing the dreadful "When will the next vacation be and where are we going?" Sadly enough, I know when the next 2 mini vacations will be and I'm thinking where else I can go and when?

It's almost best not to taste the honey because then you want more and the honey is gone. Sigh...