Center of Her Universe

By the time I was 22, I'd figured out that the center of the universe didn't begin with me as the nucleus. But then, I had already married, had a 3 year old child, a part-time job, a household to run, and so on.

I could only WISH for being the center of a universe - somewhere. *grin*

So, learning to be "selfish" is something I am just learning once again to demand at times. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I get a "yeah, right" response. And, that's pretty much okay.

So, it was with something akin to shock when I heard of why Little Mary Sunshine was pissed off at me.

Apparently, it has to do with both scheduling and dental surgery.

Remember how lucky I was over the July 4th holiday? I'd worked six days, then had my regular day off on Tuesday, not scheduled for the Wednesday, July 4th holiday, I did take Thursday and Friday off because of dental work/anesthesia, followed by my regular scheduled weekend off. So, I had six days off.

I followed that the next week with having oral surgery on my day off, and though unintentional, I ended up calling in sick the following day because of the pain.

My "part" in pissing off Little Mary Sunshine is because...get this...I had time off and SHE didn't!

You see, LMS is on probation for six months as a new employee at BHTS. In other words, if she takes time off, or calls in sick in that six months, she takes the risk of losing her job. This is because of the way our union contract is set up, plus, new employees have to accumulate vacation and comp time to take off in the first place.

People who have worked other places, or have a general idea of how this works know to be upfront with new employers at hire. You tell them something along the lines of, "I'd be happy to accept this job, but I have to tell you going in that I need time off on these dates for (vacation, previously scheduled life events, etc.) Our employers are generally pretty fair about those things.

And, of course, those of us who have worked in the system have had time to build vacation and sick leave which they can't deny us. Even though we technically are on probation, for transfers or job upgrades, it really becomes more of six months of seeing if both you and your department get along.

Our other new person knew this and he had scheduled his vacation plans prior to hire.
Same with another co-worker and I. We'd all planned this in advance and notified where appropriate.

So three out of four of us had had time off recently because we'd planned in advance as much as possible.

LMS had to work her regular schedule with no time off.

And, where I was concerned, the dental surgery I had was 'nothing' as far as LMS was concerned.

You see...SHE'S had dental surgery..."and it wasn't THAT bad." So, because I had the nerve to take time off, as far as LMS is concerned, I'm a big baby and a whiner, and just plain no good at all. So, I'm to be sneered at and treated shabbily because I'm weak in her mind.

My co-worker took her to task.

"You've had oral surgery?"

"Yes, it was really nothing."

"Did your surgery take three hours when it was only supposed to take an hour or less?"

"Well...no."

"Did you have it on a single tooth or several?"

"One."

"Did you have both the top and bottom and inside and outside of your jaw incised open, bone removed and sutured shut?"

"Uh, no."

"Well, then, how do you KNOW how Kate felt?"

There was no answer, of course.

Of course there wasn't. That might require that she look outside her own universe and notice something that doesn't concern her *first*.

Everyone in the lab is getting sick of her. Complaints are being made, apparently. One of the senior lab people tried to talk to her today; whether it was successful or not, I have no idea.

But, overall, it was an illuminating day from the standpoint of finding out that I guess I'd better remember to beg LMS for indulgence when I have something going on in my life that might affect her universe.