Walking back into a ****storm tomorrow

[ThrowMeAwayTheVeryNextDay]

I've been away on holiday for a week, back in the office tomorrow. There was a bit of a crisis happening before I went so I wrapped up as much as I could and did a decent handover. It's all blown up, my boss (CEO) has been sending furious emails and I've spent the week keeping a face on for DH and the DC while lying awake for hours at night thinking about it. My team have handled it like troopers but have also been messaging me and have set up a meeting first thing tomorrow before CEO gets in so I'm not blindsided, bless their thoughtfulness.

I'm going in extra early to clear my desk before my team get in, in case I'm getting fired. I don't know how I'm going to hold it together TBH. I've told DH that it's bad, but not how bad. He just said it's a bank holiday, don't worry about it until tomorrow. I'm tired, my holiday was ruined and I just want to go in and get it over with.

No they were fried!

All the best x

Hope all goes well today. Having that Sunday (bank holiday) blues after a holiday is bad enough, but to know something is waiting for you is just awful. Equally as bad as knowing about it on your holiday

Good luck for today, OP. I’m thinking of you.

This has happened to me a few times when on leave or before leave. It’s an awful feeling.

I hope your boss has calmed down and everything is okay for you today.

Read this last night and thought of you this morning @ThrowMeAwayTheVeryNextDay

If your decision was based on the info you had, what else could you have done? If further info that became available later would have changed your mind - well the only thing to help would have been a crystal ball.

Your boss kicked off because - HE was away when maybe HE should have been available and he knows it. You were on holiday. You are entitled to a life. He has no right to blame you unless he told you to do something and you didn’t follow instructions. Even then, nobody should be rude. Blunt/uncomfortable conversations - yes. Actual loss of temper and so on? No.

You were on your holidays and became aware of a problem.
Your at a senior level and the people working on your team give you the information they knew at that time.

He the CEO and paid the big bucks to deal with**storm's.
You based your decision on this. I would tell your CEO and other senior people this. I would not be willing to fall on my sword for him.
I would let HR know what happening as well. I think as well that the company should not let the CEO and other senior people on holiday at the same time.

I hope today goes better than you expect.

Best of luck OP. It sounds as though you are clear and well prepared so I’m hoping it’s not too bad.

Hope it goes OK today OP. I hate things like this when I'm off work and find it so hard to focus on anything else so know what a nightmare it must have been.

Do stand your ground, and stay calm. After today maybe have a think about how they have treated you and if it's the company for you going forward. You sound great and nice and composed. Best wishes to you.

Yep me too it’s awful.
good luck @ThrowMeAwayTheVeryNextDay and hope it works out ok.

Hope all's ok and sorry this has ruined your holiday. Currently on a sunlounger dreading returning to work tomorrow for different reasons. Feel for you

Good luck OP.

I hope it’s all ok today @ThrowMeAwayTheVeryNextDaythey really should have been ruining the CEO holiday not yours!

I think if what you have said is true (in terms of fallout), chances are you’ll never recover your reputation at this company so you’re essentially as good as sacked.

however from what you’ve said, it seems like you have been finding this job overwhelming. Maybe it’s just time for you to reassess what you want out of work, maybe this might be a career reset in a good way.

Hope all's ok and sorry this has ruined your holiday. Currently on a sunlounger dreading returning to work tomorrow for different reasons. Feel for you

I work in a very small organisation where I could be contacted on my days off (I don't work Fridays) or holiday. It's rarely of that sort of magnitude, more like I am the only person who can do certain things and usually, I've done them ahead of time. Only got the CEO above me but I have a colleague who is just as senior (and with a huge amount of knowledge of the sector we work in) so we're quite collegiate if CEO is off and we need to make a call. (Rare that he's off and/or not checking WhatsApp).

I totally get you needed a break and as others have said, if you did what you did at the time based on all available evidence, then they cannot complain.

Assuming this gets sorted out (and I really think it should as I can't see you've done anything wrong), why not be proactive and discuss with CEO protocols for avoiding this happening again in future? Decide what he should be contacted about and what he can leave to you until his return when he's on holiday. Also decide what you need to be contacted for and/or who people need to contact in your absence. Include things like whether you can be off at the same time etc (this is probably fine at Christmas for example, but not at your busy times). Get it all written down so that everybody is clear and follows the protocol. Then if something like this arises again, stick to the agreed protocol and nobody really has come back if that's the case, meaning you can relax a bit more. Also, consider handover notes between the two of you so you're aware of any ongoing issues when your boss goes away and he the same when you go away.

It does sound like poor leadership from the CEO though.

Fingers crossed for today. Sending positive vibes.

Good luck today OP

Good luck!

@ThrowMeAwayTheVeryNextDay I hope your day isn't as bad as you fear OP and it's all getting sorted out (your team sound great, BTW). From the little information you've posted, it doesn't sound like your error is a sackable offence (we all make mistakes sometimes!). No-one's died, have they? (Some doctors kill people - albeit usually unintentionally - they still don't get sacked!) Hopefully, this will become a dinner party story in years to come that you can laugh about. 😊

Yes. How come OP is expected to be available and contactable on holiday but the CEO isn’t?

Why was the CEO not on top of these issues, why didn’t they check the situation before their own holiday and be available for any issues that might arise? The buck stops with them.

Best of British OP! 💐

Good luck today OP, it sounds like you did your best and hopefully they’ll see that.

Ignore all the comments about how you should have taken your laptop and worked on holiday. You didn’t know you’d made a mistake and you need to switch off at some point or, like you say, you’d be rocking in the corner eventually.

If you deal with highly confidential sensitive information it’s a really bad idea to take work devices abroad anyway. No idea what you do but it’s prohibited in my workplace for that reason and IT monitor for overseas logins with any accounts they identify blocked immediately!!

I did something quite appalling recently OP and Im still here. I just had to do some retraining.

Thinking of you OP

Not gross misconduct territory, though?