22 February, 2012

Alternative medicines

It's a week with a Monday in it, and in accordance with ancient tradition the Stress Fiend called in sick on Monday, citing a bad experience with seafood. Then she called in sick on Tuesday, prompting our admin assistant to comment "You'd think she'd have learnt to leave the prawns alone after the first night."

(Sadly, knowing the way the Stress Fiend works, I could all too easily imagine her doing exactly that: "Stupid seafood, making me violently ill! I'll show it who's in charge here! I'LL EAT IT ALL!")

Today she's finally back. It's possible (if unlikely) she did the same maths as me and realised that as of yesterday she'd achieved an impressive absenteeism rate of 20% for the year so far, but more than likely it's because a third day off would have required a medical certificate.

My cynicism is running a bit high at the moment, so it's possible she was still genuinely under the weather when she shuffled in late this morning, speaking softly and wearily. If that's the case, though, then there may be a therapeutic use for Stress Fiend Bile, as once she started raging at client emails and service desk jobs all traces of illness and frailty just fell away.

(Of course so did reason and sanity, but any new treatment has some inevitable side effects).

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