When I went to bed at 2am Wednesday night after finally fixing a mysterious bug on OrangePolitics.org, I knew it was going to be hard to get up early Thursday for my flight to a last-minute work meeting in DC.
But instead of getting up at 6:30am, I woke up at 4:30am to the sound of my voicemail beeping. It seems that thoughtful American Airlines called to tell me they had cancelled my flight due to “weather” in DC. I checked the websites of NOAA, thWeather Channel, and the Federal Aviation Administration. They all indicated nice weather and no problems in the DC area. American is lucky that I don’t have time to follow up on this particular bullshit right now.
After about an hour, I gave up on my effort to find an alternate flight. I was either not going to have time to make an early flight, or I would get to DC so late I’d miss most of the meeting. I decided I would just have to phone it in to this meeting – literally.
But the boss had other plans. She called me @ 5:30am and said she’d find me a ticket because it was so important that I attend this meeting (she was awake because her husband was very sick). She said she’d make it work by cancelling the morning meeting. And she did. I spent 7-8 hours in transit for less than 5 hours of meeting – most of which my supervisor agreed I did not really need to attend. The woman who convened the meeting, for which people flew in from N.C. and N.Y., didn’t attend because her husband was in the hospital. Meanwhile colleagues are waiting on me, and about a dozen urgent tasks went undone. Some of which have to be done before I go to Utah for work Monday and I’m supposed to be out today…
Still, I do love my job and I’m lucky to have it. But some people sure do make it harder!