That all sounds really good, Sophia!

flea I think you did the right thing.

Man, talk about mixed signals. We've been told we have to use or lose or leave by Nov 1. Cool. But we are also told we can't use anything but what we have , even though we will earn PTO. Cool. BUT we were also told to schedule all our vacation now.

Except I can't schedule my PTO time because I don't have enough right now, but I will have more, but I can't schedule it until I've earned it. So now I have to ask tomorrow if I should schedule it off as unpaid time and then try to convert it to PTO later.

I'll be able to take a week in Aug, Sept and Oct if I can use the PTO and personal like the manager has explained it.

Congrats Sophia!

Of course I said student's and not students :(

Aaaargh. Friend drama. Two friends were supposed to get married this weekend but had to cancel. Another close friend has been saying she's lonely and it was the first anniversary of her buying her house, and the not-marrying friends wanted a distraction, so we agreed to go down for the weekend. In part due to Covid and part due to doggo issues, we are staying at a hotel, not at our friend's house. Apparently we had been anticipating being outside all weekend (we had been talking about grilling and an outdoor movie with a projector) and she had...not, I guess? We found out she made out with someone new last night and the not-marrying friends were concerned because they are seeing parents next weekend and worry about transmission. So they put down a "no really, outside". And she flipped out and said we are slut shaming her. And we were like no, just being cautious but also this is basically what we thought was happening anyway? And now she's crying and saying don't come this weekend. Ugh.

...argh, meara.

I recommend everyone else go to the hotel as planned and have a fun weekend outdoors grilling at a park or somesuch, with Drama Queen allowed to come if she gets over herself in time and stays on best behavior. At this point I advocate a zero tolerance policy with "How can you choose keeping your elderly loved ones safe over MEEEEE?!?" theatrics.

One of my coworkers messaged me on the way home from another state last night to tell me that someone she played scrabble with on Tuesday started having symptoms today and got tested and is positive so she's going to isolate instead of coming to work tomorrow but is it sick time or what?

This is why we don't go to other states and play scrabble, people.

flea, I think you did the right thing for yourself: life is too short to be miserable at work.

100% this.

My instructional design team (composed of both faculty and staff) just got notified we won an $18,000 innovation award!

That's awesome. Congrats!

At this point I advocate a zero tolerance policy with "How can you choose keeping your elderly loved ones safe over MEEEEE?!?" theatrics.

That sounds about right.

We are in Otter Lake, and pretty much staying away from people for a couple weeks. Yes, we went grocery shopping. I sat on the outside deck of my sister's house to visit. Her dog was the only one who has no concept of social distance. My nephew came over to replace my toilet that blew out a section of porcelain in the winter freeze. Really thought we had all the water out! We have plenty to do for a couple weeks just cleaning and unpacking.

Cats are very happy with new life.

Glad you made it, Laura.

Sorry about the drama, meara.

Congrats, flea! Sometimes leaving an awful situation is the best decision you can make.

Sophia, I think the pod idea is a good one for your small group.