Surprise me not

I haven't quite gotten over the fact that my team mate in the office, Nina, will soon be out. She finally resigned last month (after more than a year of "thinking"), on the day of her 4th anniversary in the company, and her last day will be on August 22. I thought she will be the only employee casualty in our department, but just about a week after, another officemate from a different team also resigned. Her name's Louise and she's getting married on Saturday. She hasn't been coming to office after tendering her resignation, as she has already filed a leave of absence for her wedding preparations.

Since a major reorganization in our department last year, the situation in the office has been a little bit unstable. Several resignations, redundancies, location transfers and changes of responsibility followed that major reorg. This week, another reorganization has been announced. Surprisingly, I am part of it, and surprisingly, I am part of it because Nina is leaving. The new team they formed to do a new set of tasks should have included Nina, but since she'll be out, I was considered to take her place.

Unfortunately, another officemate, Ria, who's supposed to be part of our new team when it starts to function in October, resigned this morning -- the 3rd casualty in a span of a month. Now, I'm no longer sure if they are the casualties, or we are, as we are now lacking manpower by 3. Am I surprised that these three people are leaving? No, I guess not.

Since the first major reorg, nothing surprises me anymore in this office. Even a problem I encountered this afternoon regarding our magazine pagination has rattled me for a few minutes -- but only for a few minutes. And after that, I proceeded to looking for a solution, straightfaced. Thanks to a friend in Shenzhen, Talline, the problem was easily solved with plenty of time to spare before the end of day deadline. Test of faith and test of skills. That's what this is all about.

Marthe sick today

For the second day this week, I had to go on leave. Marthe has been sick these past few days with colds and cough that came from nowhere. Must have been that golden yarn of a hair of Jouella, the new huggable doll I bought her early this week, as a gift for her continued diligence in school -- actually, a bribe to get her waking up early everyday. Last year, she has contracted some kind of upper respiratory infection from dust, pollens, stuffed toy fur and other things that usually cause allergies. Apparently, Jouella's hair isn't good for her.

Last night, we brought Marthe to the ER as she was complaining of difficulty in breathing. She had fever early in the day and I wanted to be certain it wasn't something serious. Good thing, the doctors at Makati Med declared that it was a mere nose clog and her lungs are clear. She was placed on the nebulizer for a few minutes, given paracetamol, and was pronounced fit to go home. I gave her the meds before going to bed. But by 3am, her fever had gone up to 39 degrees and I woke up to see her chilling beneath her blanket, her feet and hands very cold. We spent the next three hours bringing down her temperature, and thank God, we succeeded. It was 6am, and my eyes were almost shut, but I struggled to text Nina that I won't be able to come to work today.

As I said, this is the second day I was absent this week. On Wednesday, I felt early morning migraine and signs of impending vertigo again. I attended a team meeting in the morning and was allowed to go home at lunch time to rest. I did.

Marthe sick today

For the second day this week, I had to go on leave. Marthe has been sick these past few days with colds and cough that came from nowhere. Must have been that golden yarn of a hair of Jouella, the new huggable doll I bought her early this week, as a gift for her continued diligence in school -- actually, a bribe to get her waking up early everyday. Last year, she has contracted some kind of upper respiratory infection from dust, pollens, stuffed toy fur and other things that usually cause allergies. Apparently, Jouella's hair isn't good for her.

Last night, we brought Marthe to the ER as she was complaining of difficulty in breathing. She had fever early in the day and I wanted to be certain it wasn't something serious. Good thing, the doctors at Makati Med declared that it was a mere nose clog and her lungs are clear. She was placed on the nebulizer for a few minutes, given paracetamol, and was pronounced fit to go home. I gave her the meds before going to bed. But by 3am, her fever had gone up to 39 degrees and I woke up to see her chilling beneath her blanket, her feet and hands very cold. We spent the next three hours bringing down her temperature, and thank God, we succeeded. It was 6am, and my eyes were almost shut, but I struggled to text Nina that I won't be able to come to work today.

As I said, this is the second day I was absent this week. On Wednesday, I felt early morning migraine and signs of impending vertigo again. I attended a team meeting in the morning and was allowed to go home at lunch time to rest. I did.