On the whole, I’d rather be in . . .
Posted By Russ Emerson on February 5, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Yesterday I had another followup with the neurologist. He seemed pleased with how I’m doing, post-MRI, and for the time being, plasmapheresis is off the table. He wants me to go back to doing physical therapy regularly, though I suspect a gym membership would be less expensive. I do plan on acquiring some sort of home gym equipment.
If there’s an upside to this whole Magical Neurological Thrill-ride, it’s that I have a legitimate excuse to avoid one of the least-pleasant things about being in management at Mega Huge Telecommunications Corporation: strike contingency assignments.
There’s a chance that the large-ish union that represents a substantial number of our employees will go out on strike when their contract expires sometime this Spring. In anticipation of that possibility, management employees such as myself have all been given contingency assignments so that the work of the company will go on.
My assignment: climbing utility poles in Dayton, Ohio.
Right.
Now, while my direct managers have been quite supportive since the beginning of the Neurological Unpleasantness, the company as a whole has no idea that I am among the ranks of the disabled. In order to get a “pass” on the strike assignment, I had to jump through quite a few hoops, the most important of which was getting a letter from my doctor explaining why I might be unable to perform my contingency duties.
My neurologist is a good guy, and sent a letter so good that if Charles Manson had it, he’d be a free (albeit barking-at-the-moon crazy) man today. The upshot being that I’m not going to have to go to Dayton.
On the other hand, almost all of my teammates have been assigned to various odd jobs around the country, leaving me and a small handful of the team to handle the entire workload. If there is a strike, I expect to be pulling some very long shifts.
I’ve never been a fan of unions — for the most part, I think they’ve outlived their original purpose by about 75 years — so I’m sort of thinking that it’d be nice to hurt them at contract time… but I’m not terribly keen on working double shifts. We’ll see. Maybe they’ll realize they just aren’t going to get much from the company in this economy.
At least I don’t have to go to Dayton.