LIW strikes again

How many jobs do you know of in which the employee can, um, just leave? ...and be welcome to return to work the next day?

After a couple days' sabbatical from LIW's incessant humming, I got adjusted to the calmness of the office, but nay. It was not to last.

LIW called me this morning to let me know that she had things she had to take care of. OK. And that she wouldn't be in until around 10:30 or 11. Houston, we have a problem. Problem #1: She has no leave time. Problem #2: We have (imagine this) a huge mailout that has to go in the mail today.

Around 11, LIW strolls in, says nothing to anyone in the office, goes in her office and proceeds to...well I can't really figure out what she did since nothing exited her office.

Sir Knight tries to roust her from her computer, and to his surprise, she was at her desk, scribbling away on a pad of paper. Sir Knight thought it looked conspicuously like a resignation letter, as she hid it quite effectively when he came into viewing distance.

Around 11:30, the rest of us decided to go out to eat, and we tried to be charitable by asking if she'd like to go along. We were going to her fave place, but even Sir Knight couldn't get her roots out of the carpet.

We get back around 1:00 to find her conspicuously absent. The lights in her office are off, and a report that we did last week was in Sir Knight's chair, ruthlessly edited (but alas, she was on vacation, so it has already been submitted), accompanied by a note.

"I managed to get a doctor's appointment at 1:30, so I won't be in for the rest of the day."

Ahem. Let's take this a step at a time.

Step 1: "I managed" --as if she had to put in supreme effort and is quite ecstatic that said appointment will occur.

Step 2: "1:30---rest of day" --an impromptu appointment that takes three hours? Amazing.

To top it all off, we get a call from HR well after she's gone for the day asking about last month's hours. Apparently, she's trying to get donated leave because her surgery from last month was connected to her cancer in 1995.

Let's step back a moment and look critically at the situation:

The great hernia operation of Twenty Aught Six is TIED TO and CAUSED BY the great breast cancer bout of 1995.

Because everyone knows about those great hernias that pop up from time to time in your right breast.