Work frustration, but comforted by a sore bottom

It has been a while since I have ranted about work. Unfortunately, the cycle has restarted.

Back in November of last year, we hired two contractors. My manager fired the male contractor a month later, as he was highly unproductive. The female contractor showed promise. She was eager to learn and was hard-working.

She and my manager do not get along. My manager insisted that she start work with the rest of her agile team. She prefers to start work at 07:30. Only one other person is in the office at that hour and that person does not work directly with her. She didn't compromise with my manager. Instead, she still comes in at the same time, but takes more breaks and leaves work half an hour later.

My manager has set up team lunches every Friday, so that we can all bond. No team member is obligated to attend all of them, but these invitations caused stress for the contractor.

Late on Monday, my manager forwarded an e-mail from this contractor, who essentially resigned and said that this week would be her last with the company. Frankly, I don't think that she can give less than a week's notice. It's just not classy.

I had suspected that she would jump ship. Being sick for a week was my tipoff. On Monday, she cited getting her basement attended to in the morning due to flooding. She was adamant that she would be away in the morning, but would resume work from home in the afternoon. I have a feeling that she knew that she no longer wanted to come into work.

So, my manager has yet again asked me to step in and take over a departing writer's tasks. I am frankly sick of bailing people out. One writer goes on vacation and I am the only one who ended up subbing for her. Another writer quit a year ago. I picked up her slack. What about last December when two writers could not get their act together and do their jobs? Another writer and I slaved away to get the job done under tight deadlines.

I need to seriously consider finding another job. I feel, yet again, that my career is stagnant. I do not want to be filling in for folks who quit.

Apparently, we have three positions open. I can only hope that they all get filled so I can do what I enjoy doing these days, which is teaching folks how to write rather than being taken for granted as someone who can save the day when we are short-staffed. However, I still need to see what jobs are out there. Perhaps I can find one that is close to home and that I find challenging.

I will continue regularly scheduled fun posts soon. Yes, my backside is still sore from my recent spanking. It makes me feel loved that my guy would spank me after a long day of travel.