It’s going to be a short work week for us, given that Wednesday is Hari Raya, and Mama Toh and myself are on leave on Thursday and Friday.
Did someone say mega long weekend?
We took leave on Friday with a plan to bring the kids to W Hotel for a staycation to celebrate Mama Toh’s 21st birthday. Then out of the blue, Summer’s school sent a notice informing us that there will be an excursion on Thursday to the movies, and parents are welcome to join.
Mama Toh and myself are quite weird people. We actually feel bad for taking leave for consecutive days unless we are going overseas for a long holiday. Well, it’s not nice to have your colleagues covering your work too often right? Quite a weird mentality, we know.
Anyhow, we relented and went back to our respective bosses to apply for one more day of leave. Partly because we don’t want Summer to look on as one of the few kids who do not have parental company for the excursion, and partly because she specifically asked ‘Papa Mama can you please come with me on my excursion to watch Finding Dory?’.
Even though tickets cost $18 each it’s hard to reject this face
My boss gave the green light to proceed, and all was well. Right up until today.
One of my colleagues became a new father just last week, and was due to return to work on Thursday. That was okay, given that we usually cover each other when we are on leave, so just nice when he comes back I go off, right?
But this colleague came… and requested to extend his leave to Thursday and Friday as well.
My immediate reaction… whaaaat…
In such situations, I will usually very humbly point out to the other person that I booked the dates first, and hope the other person has enough conscience to know what to do.
However in this case, my colleague has a very good reason in that he wanted to help out his wife with the kiddo, and so I as a father myself I was quite emphatic towards that. Which then led us to the dilemma of what next.
My colleague, an eternal optimist, very bravely tried to tell my boss that it was only for 2 days and nothing serious will happen, and hence he should allow both of us to go on leave together at the same time.
A very admirable kamikaze attempt which was rather swiftly shot down by my boss.
This little one is very capable of shooting you down too
To my boss’s credit, he was kinda apologetic about it, and tried to weigh who had a more valid reason to be away from the office. Of course, that was never going to work because we both had very valid reasons.
Sensing that someone’s got to give in somehow, the pacifist in me volunteered to bring my laptop home to work from home (or W Hotel for that matter) so that someone is on top of things. The last thing I want happening is a pissy boss (I already have to deal with one at home) or a strained relationship with a colleague whom I work closely with.
My boss, to his credit once again, thought about it for a moment and rejected my suggestion, stating that I was the one who booked my leave first. Yay.
But of course something still had to be done about the situation and he requested that one of us cover a day each.
Crap… which day should I choose to spoil? The chance to join Summer for a movie with her friends, or family time at W? The lesser of 2 disappointments made me choose Thursday, and in my mind I was half rehearsing my apology to Summer for not being able to make it to the movies.
Then suddenly, to my boss’s credit for the 3rd time, without me asking for anything, he told me to work from home, and only when I finished my movie with Summer, i.e. only the 2nd half of the day.
WHAT??? How can something so nice come out from my usually nonchalant boss?
End of the day, everyone was happy, and most importantly I didn’t have to disappoint anyone in the family.
Because family is always Number One.
Proud to say Summer didn’t trip over the steps despite wearing that pair of silly shades