The Creped Crusaders - new thread!

[wilbur]

New thread for chatting. Oh and swapping S&B tips.

Having a manic day here - INSET day at school and I have 7 kids (inc my 3) over for lunch. While also trying to "work from home" and talk to removal people.

I'm so v I can't be joining you. I blasted need a bit of a lie down like that!

He has been asleep for more than two hours now - perhaps he will arise in a sunnier frame of mind...

Bet he will be bouncing around till midnight

Woo Hoo! Got my pass!

How come you didn't want to sign up MI?

It has to be Real People . Staffers don't count .

Believe me, I yearn at all the lovely products that pass across her desk, as I sit surrounded by cold lozenges

I am about to hit "cannot cope" at work. I have a boss who emails in the small hours and gives completely unreasonable deadlines. I left "early" today (1755), having had no lunch break and having got in before 0900 (dropping the kitten off to be neutered en route - had to collect her before 1830, hence early departure). I had a call from the office at 2030 this evening, from my assistant who was trying to find a document that someone needed "urgently" and denied all knowledge of me forwarding it. Having looked through my emails, I see I have another document, sent to me at 1930 tonight, for "urgent" comments first thing in the morning. I have a meeting that starts at 0900 and finishes at 1830 tomorrow, so have the choice of either looking at this paper now or tomorrow morning first thing - oh and an email from the school is also demanding a tray of muffins for a bake sale. So - muffins tonight and in early tomorrow, or both tonight?

I'd quite like some cold lozenges, MI.

MrsS:
I think you should drop the school stuff. Unless you are really, really enjoying it. Really I do. And I think you should email back to the 1930 one saying that sorry, this isn't feasible as you have a morning meeting, suggest XXX comments instead. Preferably your boss. Unless he sent it to you. Which I bet he did. They are being plain nasty, all of them, and I feel like coming to Paris to bop them one

I just don't seem to have any kind of work life balance at the moment. I've had two days leave since Christmas, and have had to reduce my summer leave by a week as everyone else suddenly decided they wanted that week too. I am feeling stressed, particularly as my boss seems to do no work at all beyond forwarding "action" emails to me.

I am interviewing again on Friday, which effectively wipes out the whole day, but most people are taking Friday off, as Thursday is a public holiday. It is DD1's school play next week, and I really don't see how I am going to get away on time to see it. If I can get the interviews to finish promptly at 1700, I can probably make the Friday evening performance, and I think there is a matinee on the Saturday. Perhaps I should get DH to do the evening ones and I will do the matinee? It is our Big Event next week, and not a cat in hell's chance I will be out the office, never mind at the school for 1900.

But sweetie, hang on. Step back a minute.

Why did you 'have' to reduce your summer leave by a week? You'd booked it. You were entitled to it.

Can you do anything about bullying boss? Refuse to 'action' any of these wretched emails?

DH can do the school play. Hell, you could be a Bad Mummy and just not go.

And drop the PTA. NOW.

MI gives good advice

I think that the problem is that you are so darn capable that they keep putting more stuff onto you. I have friends who have the same problem - no-one seems to be able to make a decision without needing to ask their advice, and they work with / for people who do SFA.

Give up the PTA for now at least. And why did you give up your summer leave? Why couldn't someone else have done that?

Yes. They are thinking 'oh, I cannot be arsed, I will just pass it on to MrsS, she'll do it, she always does' and even they aren't actively being bullying they are being thoughtless and nasty.

You do not have to 'action' anything sent to you after 6pm for the following day. You can just say you weren't able to because you had other commitments. You can tell them you will be working at home on some set, specific days which are quite far in the future so nobody else has booked them...and then refuse to budge. And you can get DH to pull his weight .

I've just been sent a "wagging finger" email - this was not good enough, you really should have done better, you didn't include X and Y, and we had to rewrite it. Yes, like my writing is so crap. It gets rewritten anyway - why put in the effort when it's going to be redone. This was something that I had written yesterday for a 1730 deadline, sat around in the office while various lengthy personal phone calls were made, only to be told, oh I haven't time to look at it tonight, I'll do it tomorrow. It got sent, because it was rewritten so many times (it was on version 5 when I left) at 2130 tonight. It was like being treated like a 5 year old "must try harder/must do better than this." My team are completely demoralised because of this and are complaining vociferously, also moaning about the fact that it now seems to be the norm to email constantly late into the night. So we leave, having seen everything in our inboxes, only to come in the next morning with a raft of stuff that's been sent overnight.

Am going to have a word with the head honcho tomorrow. For what it's worth.

Oh yes, DH, hahaha...a whole other story.

MrsS - it is very true that if you want something done, ask a busy person. And sometimes that busy person should just say "bugger off, I'm too busy".

I agree you should push back the school stuff - surely someone else can rustle up some muffins?

MI, do you need A.N.Other to replace Herbs for your skin thing? As it's on a Saturday (guessing 26th) it would be manageable.......if you still need someone??

Anyway, not a great day today. At lunchtime I had to endure the hell that is the passport photo booth, as my Driving Licence photo has expired. After close examination of the resulting photos I have decided that my eyes are bearing up fairly well despite my advancing years, but my mouth and jowly chops.....oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. And the "no smile" rule made me look like Myra Hindley on a bad day.

And the CointreauVersial-mobile has claimed yet another innocent 4-legged victim, as I managed to hit (and kill) a dog today.

It shot into the road as I was driving through a stretch of woodland just outside the village; I was only going slowly but couldn't avoid it. Loads of lovely people stopped to help, and a vet came running down the road, but the poor mutt died pretty quickly. I then had to phone the owner and deal with a sobbing 50-something man at the side of the road. The DDs were in the car - but they were great, more worried about me than anything.

School will cope without your muffins, MrsS. I have found that the school does jolly well without my muffins (although obviously my muffins are of a quality far inferior to the Schadenfreude muffins). Just Say NO - to the school stuff (it sounds like you have more than done your bit and those painted nail slackers can take over now). And you absolutely have every right to an evening off and sleep; what is with the stinkers you work with thinking that there is even any point in sending out docs at 19.30? Say no to the eejits eating into your evening. And I think it is v.v.v. bad that you have been the one squeezed out of a week's summer leave.

I feel that the Creped Crusaders need to put their pants on over their tights and march on Paris...

Other news: having led me a not very merry dance over the last few days (texts, phone calls, trouble with a teacher resulting in me having to phone the trip leader, grrrrr, drama, blah, blah, bloody blah), dd has now returned from France having had a lovely time, apparently. Her French is certainly better. I have just got a whole load more grey hairs, though.

Very of BTM's trip to see MI's colleague. Will it be in your mag, MI? If so, we will all need to get a copy!

MrsS, x-posts. Good luck with the head honcho. The emailing late into the night really is quite bonkers. I do hope things ease up soon.

CV, poor dog, poor chap and poor you. And well done to the dds for staying calm.

CV - poor you, poor (irresponsible?) dog owner. We hit a dog once in Belgium - like you, it ran out in front of us, on a pretty fast road. The owner went ballistic at us - it was only a puppy, and wanted to take our details and get us to pay for a replacement (!). It survived - I think the vet's bill must have been quite dear.

this is my new best friend's blog. She works in the building next door from me, and clearly manages to get out at lunchtime. It definitely belongs in a style and beauty thread.

Are we going to have a meet up? I can probably do 15 June if I book soon. (And have to book Disney for three nights from 17th.)

No no no to late night emailing....it is that crap 'look at me I'm still working' thing, when nine times out of ten, it is that 'I didnt deal with it when I should have done' crap...

MrsS - I can't blame the dog owner; he was lovely, and didn't blame me at all. He told me she was a rescue dog, and he wasn't altogether surprised that she had gone walkabout. She was definitely a dog of indeterminate breed, but looked lovely.

YYY to meet-up! 15th is fine for me.

Strops - good to hear your DD had fun in France. Did the words "I told you so" pass your lips at any time?!

BD - I have a colleague who does that "late night emailing", but we all know he is a complete layabout and world-class skiver. He fools no-one.

MrsS - just watching M. Hollande on the News, parading through Paris with his head stuck through the sunroof of a small hatchback car.

Good guy? Better than the last fool??

BD, that is exactly what I was thinking - MrsS you should be saying that you feel your boss is struggling to keep up with your teams ouptut as he is still emailing you through the evening/night about stuff that should have been dealt with during the day

CV what a horrible thing to happen
Fingers crossed they need another guinea-pig.

MrsS, what a blingy blog - how did you meet her?

So 15th June?
MrsS
CV
BTM

Anyone else? Come on crepeys, you know you want to

Oh, and meant to say, Stropps, glad to hear your DD came back in one piece and speaking French better - never mind your grey hairs

BD you must come to the meet-up.

We want to meet yooooo!

Yes, yes, come on BD

And everyone else too

Ooooh, I really want to come, but I don't know if I can make it this time. Will peruse train timetables and have a think about possible places to stay.

BTW, any crepeys who are visiting Dorset (or nearby!) during their hols - please feel free to contact me if you have a small space in your schedule that you would like to fill with a mini Crepey convention.