Casualties

The ship is sinking. Aside from the team member that's already on sick leave and 25% staffing cutback for the customer service area staff, we suffered one more casualty today. Peggy's arthritis has gotten so bad. Effectively immediately on Tuesday, the doctor has ordered her to stay off work for at least 2 months.

Last week she told me that she couldn't get her rings off her finger and when I looked the joints were really swollen. By the end of last week, she left some data-inputting for me to do although it takes no more than 30 seconds to do. I realized she couldn't type anymore with her arthritis. On Tuesday, she started to limp. It hurts me to see her like that. Peggy's been a fighter. In 34 years she's called in sick no more than 3 times. Last time she called in sick when she had completely lost her voice due to bronchitis. I can't imagine how disappointed she feels about herself when she announced that she'll be off for 2 months.

The load is on me now. I have to hold down the fort until our department is back on track. In two weeks my manager will part with us and there's been talks amongst people of different seniority about leaving. I can't see the light... I can only hope.

I somehow found this card on my desk ironic. The poster girl is my manager.

We need help.