Boss's Office

F usually chases me out when she sees me investigating the boss's office. Sometimes I sit outside his balcony door and just stare at him until he starts to be uncomfortable. Lots of days we are in the office when he is working from home, so on Thursday (one such day) I sauntered in and made myself at home.

I can see the whole office from here.

There have been some serious office politics going on. In addition to one colleague being hospitalized these last two weeks (and requiring yet more weeks of recuperation), another had suddenly terminated his employment leaving F and the newbie (2 months in the job and still on probation) to keep the wheels turning. F discovered they each had portfolios of around 300 cases (many of which turned out to be settled, timebarred, or simply going nowhere but not closed down), about 2/3rds of which could simply be closed but it has involved a review of every one of 600 cases to find the ones that still have life in them, close down the rest, and plan strategies for handling what remains.

Even closing the redundant ones has been time consuming because the risk management part of her job requires that certain data about every case has to be recorded before it can be closed - which has meant reading into the background of even the cases which clearly no longer have a pulse (or any other life signs).

F has been dreaming file lists which clearly isn't a good thing. She has also discovered stashes of unpaid invoices, unfiled emails that run to 100's and various other administrative tasks that should be performed to assist other internal departments that have been repeatedly ignored. She had been aware of inattention to admin by one colleague and a sense of being overwhelmed suffered by the other (which was related to underlying anxiety issues initially unrelated to work), but hadn't realized the depth of cover-up  or 'avoidance' that had been going on.

Evenings and weekends have been work time in our household. It's too hot to go anywhere so she might as well, but social stuff like writing, reading and commenting on blogs, or taking coffee with neighbours or wine with friends, has all gone 'out the window'.

Next week is Posidonia here. Posidonia is possibly the worlds biggest shipping market trade fair. Everyone connected with the industry wants everyone else connected with the industry to visit them and eat, drink, be entertained. It should be a great big party week, and for some it will be. There are sporting events, enormous parties, cosy 'receptions', open-house events, outings on private yachts, lunches and dinners, seminars and presentations, prize-giving ceremonies and exhibitions to attend. F has declined 90% of the invitations she has received. It's a pity to do so but they have simply added to the stress levels rather than representing any kind or pleasure or reward for the hard work put in the rest of the years she has been here. Her job was already a 24/7 on-call one, now it's a 3x24/7 job and new recruits (if any can be found) will not resolve the workload any time soon.

We have just received our repatriation letter - the terms of being moved back to UK at summer's end. This is going to be a long and tedious summer and it's end simply cannot arrive soon enough.

On a brighter note, Mr B is working on redecorating our UK house so it is all new and fresh for us to move back into, F has chanced her way into an allotment awaiting our return (she's really excited about that), and F has cemented her reputation for being a fixer when the chips are really down.

Now I want her to fix how excruciatingly hot it has become around here again - and only the first week of June.

My go-to place when air temps again exceed mid 30s in the shade