After about two weeks straight of 2-3 hours/night sleeping, my manager sent me home from work because I was too exhausted to function properly. That was about five years ago; my insomnia issues aren't nearly as bad these days, thank goodness.

Bad insomnia can be a legit reason to call in, or in my universe, work from home. If I am not safe to drive, I should not be going into the office.

Yup. If I'm punch-drunk from not sleeping, I should not make the 25-minute drive to work.

Ha, I got sucked into Angry Birds on Facebook and went to bed. . . much too close to the time my alarm goes off. I wish I could have called in "tired."

Can you imagine the hundreds or thousands of times that those of us with insomnia issues, or kids, or a good novel at hand have crawled our butts into work on little to no sleep? Suck it up, dude.

I call in unable to work because of insomnia--sometimes it's unable to drive, sometimes it's actually unable to perform the required tasks. I'd hate if someone were writing me up because of insufficiency of spoons. Even if it's my fault, it wouldn't make driving in any safer. And I'm not sure how my boss would ever know it's my fault. That's between me and my godlessness.

I, too, have no magic words for getting through grief. But Maria, you are in my thoughts.

Ginger, still sending you good 'scopy~ma.

So she's in the bedroom and immediately she jumped on the bed. I hope this doesn't mess up her stitches but there's no other place I could put her.

She'll be fine. They ALL do that. Unless you put the cone of shame on 'em, and they'll eventually figure out how to do the jumping with the cone on... or how to get the thing off. The best you can do is the best anyone can do.

Until this morning when Penny started biting his tail and trying to pounce on him.

At this point, as long as they aren't getting into a knock-down drag-out all out war, or he starts kicking at her tummy, it's probably just fine. Heaven knows I was never successful at restricting post-spay activity levels for as long as recommended. Main thing is to keep an eye on the incision site and know what too look for as far as excessive inflammation and swelling.

Similar, if he is saying EPA is corrupt, he needs to document. Though parts of it were very corrupt in Bush era.

Yeah, but was it corrupt in the way this guy thinks, anti-oil? or was it corrupt in the way I think, anti-planet-and-healthy-people?

she's afraid if she takes him to the vet, she'll end up having to put him down.

I don't know any specific cause if there is no visible injury. But is your friend asking if this is an emergency, take time off work and insist on the vet seeing the cat immediately - I'm leaning toward "tomorrow is good enough" yet in her shoes I would ask the vet by phone. My thinking on dealing with symptoms in aged pets when financial resources are limited is - it might be something that is simple, easy, and inexpensive to treat. Or, it might be something that is simple, easy, and inexpensive to treat if caught soon enough but difficult or impossible and spendy if left too long. Or, yeah, it might be the bad news we fear. But if it's something that might be fixable now I would hate to have the regret of leaving it too long.

A while ago I saw a T-shirt that had on it "I was out of sick days so I called in dead".

But that really only works the one time.

Hivemind question: A friend at work has been recently hit with cluster headaches (I think he said that is what it is, rather than proper migraines). He is supposed to have a "cranial neural block" today, and doesn't know what to expect. Does anyone here know much about them?

Yeah, we are doing hard physical work in Tyvek suits and it's about 80 degrees today. I talked with my boss, we'll probably just have a chat with him when he gets back about the importance of advance notice when possible and not screwing over the crew. This is the guy with serious entitlement issues, who tends to do what he wants regardless of policy or direction, so I will admit to a bias in my suspicions.

He has also called in because he got too drunk the night before, and was dumb enough to tell me that was the reason. He didn't see why it was a problem.

Also, these are volunteers on a tiny stipend, so they get cut slack.

There's "Man, I stayed up too late and now I'm really tired" and then there's "I had insomnia and now I can't function". You can't know for sure which it was if he doesn't tell you, and you can't call him on something - officially, at work - if you're not sure.

In related news, I slept badly last night due to anxiety, was up at 5am, went back to bed at 6:30, slept much longer than I expected to, and am now just sitting down to work at noon. Thankfully, my boss doesn't care WHEN I do the work as long as it gets done on time.

At this point, as long as they aren't getting into a knock-down drag-out all out war, or he starts kicking at her tummy, it's probably just fine.

Penny and Dean get in some pretty aggressive/acrobatic tussles. Lots of rolling around, jumping on each other, etc. So I'm going to keep the separated for several days.

But is your friend asking if this is an emergency, take time off work and insist on the vet seeing the cat immediately - I'm leaning toward "tomorrow is good enough" yet in her shoes I would ask the vet by phone.

Pretty much this, yes, although taking time off is not an option. If she gets home before the vet closes, she'll take him in tonight. I've offered to help cover costs. Pixel is a sweet, smart, crazy cat who has slept on my head, and I like him.

smonster,

I also think (given the age group of the people you work with) that they may not understand the full implications of missing work. I think if you sit the person down and let them know what an inconvenience it is and that you appreciate their assistance, need it, and they also need to be there if at all possible when they promise to be, he might get it.