Arrrgh! Work Rant!

Okay, so I figured the last week of work would probably be hectic, frantic and a bit worrisome. However, the reasons for my feelings right now have NOTHING to do with the original reasons why I would be hectic, frantic and worried.

The things bothering me now did not even EXIST until this week! Its like all that has been before has been thrown out the window and now my boss has decided to THROW UP all over everything!

Backing up:

I am the only administrative assistant in a small law firm. Generally, working for 9 lawyers is a challenge, but we are small and some of the lawyers are more self-sufficient than others, and while there have been times that I wish I had more help (especially with filing), I can handle the day to days of the office pretty damn well (if I do say so myself). There is an Office Manager, but she and I do totally different things (she mainly does billing, etc.).

I told the office manager and my boss relatively early on about the pregnancy (they had known about the IVF, etc.). Talk of maternity leave and temporary help was held off for a bit (mainly because my boss didn’t want to jinx it---and he is a procrastinator). FINALLY, the beginning of the year, we had the talk about maternity leave (10 weeks paid) and getting a Temp or maybe a Temp to Perm (to add to the administrative personnel) during my maternity leave was mentioned.

Then the economy (and real estate—we are commercial real estate, but it still affects us a bit) went bad….Temp only; maybe part time Temp….

NOW I find out last Friday---he’s decided they will be okay without a Temp. No one will be replacing me. It’s not a reflection of the value of me. Essentially, my boss is panicking. He knows he is paying my time off and he knows his lawyer’s office hours are lower…so he assumes that the Office Manager can “pick up some of the slack” and that they will muddle through the next 10 weeks…

And who is happy about this? Not the office manager, that’s for sure. And I frankly had a quiet little hope that a Temp would be at least keeping my job in a small dull roar of filing vs. the HUGE MESS I will probably find when I get back. Let alone, the office manager has no clue about some of the things I do, and—so I have to teach her to do my job AND she has to do HERS. (Which I just know is going to be bad mojo coming down during the next 10 weeks). My least annoying thought—that when I come in with Willow I will be nursing her and being asked tons of work questions, etc. (Where’s this file? What’s this do?)

Here I thought this week I would be training someone and having a little help besides to get things cleaned up a bit. Oh, and do my job, too… which, just cuz the lawyers might not have tons of work, doesn’t translate to no work for me (in fact this is when they start to think of organizing their offices and asking me to do “projects” for them).

To add to it, my boss gave me a highly redundant and useless project, of which I have put as lowest priority—cuz now I have to get things in order for NO ONE (or is that EVERYONE?).

Hopefully, something will work out (there are rumblings of the Part Time option again).

In the end though—I gotta say, as of this FRIDAY---it’s not my problem!