Yays and Nays

[Batya33]

5 hours ago, boltnrun said:

My intestinal disease is flaring up really badly. It started overnight Friday night (so I did the 5k on like 4 hours of sleep) and has been really bad ever since. If it doesn't get better by tomorrow I'll have to call my useless doctor. The alternative is to go to the ER but they'll hospitalize me and that's just not going to happen. Hopefully it'll start getting better on it's own. It has before. 

I'm so sorry to hear this and I have heard often the flaring up can be out of nowhere -not related to what you've eaten or not eaten. I hope it gets better!!

[boltnrun]

Thank you. And yes, these flare-ups can come out of nowhere. Something I eat regularly suddenly sends my digestive system into a complete meltdown and it takes up to a week to settle down.

I am in the office and am really having a hard time focusing. I don't want to ask my manager AGAIN to leave early but recent weeks have been pretty rough health-wise. 

As a funny side note, my company sent out an email announcing they now provide menopause support. What exactly are they trying to tell me 🤣 Anyway, my "meno" paused about five years ago. In fact it didn't pause, it stopped! And I'm so glad. My periods were epically awful. I couldn't even leave home the first two days. 

[Seraphim]

I hope you are feeling better soon !

[boltnrun]

Thank you.

TMI, but I have had to use the bathroom twice so far at work and it was, shall we say, messy. Not a pleasant thing to deal with at work. But it seems things are once again "moving along" which will help clear up this flare up. 

One relatively smart thing I did yesterday was limit how much I ate, and for dinner I had potatoes and a couple of eggs. No meat and nothing really solid. I think it helped to give my digestive system a bit of a rest. 

I still feel very weak, fatigued and lightheaded but the pain is much less. 

[Batya33]

4 hours ago, boltnrun said:

Thank you.

TMI, but I have had to use the bathroom twice so far at work and it was, shall we say, messy. Not a pleasant thing to deal with at work. But it seems things are once again "moving along" which will help clear up this flare up. 

One relatively smart thing I did yesterday was limit how much I ate, and for dinner I had potatoes and a couple of eggs. No meat and nothing really solid. I think it helped to give my digestive system a bit of a rest. 

I still feel very weak, fatigued and lightheaded but the pain is much less. 

I hope you're doing better and glad to hear at least the pain was decreasing.  

[boltnrun]

Thankfully the pain has almost completely dissipated. Things "moved" along yesterday. Hate when that happens at work because the TP is so thin, rough and not very effective so I have to use a lot. Very uncomfortable too. Not nice when you have to go #2 four times. And there are so many people working in the office now there's very little privacy in the ladies room. Ugh. I miss the days when it was only me and three other women in the office. I think there's a dozen or more now. And Facilities hasn't caught on that they need to service the bathroom twice a day now. Once every other day doesn't cut it anymore. I told the HR manager via email but he didn't respond 😕

[Batya33]

Ugh I hope today is much better and glad the pain dissipated!

[boltnrun]

30 minutes ago, Batya33 said:

Ugh I hope today is much better and glad the pain dissipated!

Thanks. I had submitted (and got approved) a request to work in the office two days a week instead of three. So I am working remotely today.

I could probably get my doctor to mandate work from home permanently but I don't want to be "that guy" who asks for even more special treatment. I'm trying to be a team player and I also really want to keep this job. 

[Seraphim]

Hopefully more time working from home helps . 

[boltnrun]

13 minutes ago, Seraphim said:

Hopefully more time working from home helps . 

Thanks. It is definitely better than five days or three days. But likely due to my aversion to going into the office I tend to be sick on those days. I am constipated on home days and have diarrhea or get un-constipated on office days. So I expect tomorrow to be bad.

And I don't hate working in the office. I just strongly dislike the long commute and the bathroom situation is not ideal for someone who suffers from a digestive disorder. Everything I do work-wise is electronic and all meetings are virtual, so forcing me (and many others) to work in the office is pointless. But Corporate is into optics so they insist we go in. Silly, isn't it?

[Seraphim]

The motivation to work is pretty individual though . My husband definitely ISNT motivate to work remotely. He literally can’t . He can’t sit still he is up and down like a jack rabbit . Getting food every 5 minutes etc etc . He gets more work done going to a physical place of work. 
 

So, I think it is highly individual. Some people like you do great remotely . Some people just devolve and become unmotivated and ineffective. 

[boltnrun]

I would estimate 90% of those of us who are being forced back into the office vastly prefer to work remotely. In fact, the CEO sent out a communication that the company has its most productive years in company history in 2020, 2021 and 2022. And then decided to move us back into the office 🙄 I get a LOT done remotely. I find it distracting to be in the office! People walking around, having loud conversations, the smell of everyone's lunches, etc. At home I play my music and can have a nice relaxing environment to do my work. But oh well, the honchos decided it looks better to have us in the office. It could be worse, though. I only have to go in twice a week so that's not that bad.

[Seraphim]

That’s the thing though preference and what people are good at is different.  For some people it works great and some people , not so much. 
 

I am glad it works great for you . It definitely is a good system for people who can work that way. 

[boltnrun]

I get that, but that wasn't a factor in why they ordered us back to the office. Like I mentioned, we had our most productive years while most of us were working remotely. And we had the option to work in the office during those years if we chose. One coworker came in every day because her husband is disabled and she didn't want to disrupt him while she worked. A few others also chose to come in. But those of us who were working remotely and were productive weren't given a choice. And that wasn't because we were underperforming but because someone decided it would look better to corporate if we all worked in the office. My manager admitted it was all about optics and nothing to do with productivity. And what's more irritating is the honchos are still working remotely or coming in at lunchtime or whenever they feel like it but we worker bees have to have a set schedule in the office. But I submitted a schedule exception request before the end of last year and it was approved. So I get to do two days a week instead of three. I am lucky with that. 

[boltnrun]

My skip level manager is supposed to lead a regional meeting every month. So far this year she has cancelled the meeting all except one time. Problem with that is she schedules it for 6:30 am on a Thursday, which is normally one of my in-office days. That means I have to get up even earlier to make it in the office to sign in to attend the meeting. So I am up at 4:15 am. Last time I got myself up and into the office and signed in and logged into the meeting...only to have her cancel it five minutes AFTER the meeting start time. Never rescheduled either. So this month it was supposed to be today, but for different reasons I got approved to work remotely today. And sure enough, I signed in to find out she had once again cancelled the meeting (but at least this time she cancelled a half hour before the meeting start time). So glad I hadn't schlepped into the office! 

My take is, if she's too busy to lead this meeting they should either assign it to someone else or she should have a proxy lead the meeting. Instead of constantly cancelling it the same day. 

[boltnrun]

I'm ridiculously happy about my new watering can being delivered in about five days. My brother had given me a gardening kit that includes a spray bottle but it was ineffective and only lasted a couple of months before jamming up. I'm currently using a squeeze bottle which is not ideal. BTW, I suck at growing things but I keep trying because I love plants. 

[boltnrun]

I had a bizarro dream about my former FWB that was factually pretty accurate. In real life he stole from his father's company (where he was being paid TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS a month tax-free) and rightfully was given the boot. In my dream he was trying to run his own version of the company and I went by for some reason. Which I would never do because I think stealing is wrong, particularly from family. Very strange dream!

[boltnrun]

Poop discussion warning.

Finally this morning, about 15 minutes after I got to the office, I was able to go. A nice big emptying of everything that had been stuck. I hope I'll be able to get better and the pain will finally go away. 

I do like the office better on Fridays. Almost no one in my area comes in. It's much more quiet and the bathroom isn't always occupied by someone else. I think I'll ask my manager if I can switch from Thursdays to Fridays. The original intent was for us to all be in the office on the same days, but even when we are if we have meetings they're still over Teams! So what's the point???

[boltnrun]

I locked my laptop at 2:48. Walked to the bathroom, went to the bathroom (#1), washed my hands, walked back and unlocked my laptop and it was...2:48. Now I know for sure I'm being screwed with.