Utter Frustration

I work for a public servant, an elected official.  Very likeable man, but sometimes painfully clueless.  One thing I have noticed is that he has terrible listening skills and even worse remembering skills.  Positively abysmal.  Drives me insane.

Yesterday one of my coworkers got the call that her grandmother (in hospice) was about to die.  She furiously cleaned up her desk and briefed me on what she had going on.  Then she spoke with our boss to let him know of the situation–she needed to leave early, wouldn’t be in today and Friday was doubtful, but she’d let him know.  He was very kind and understanding.  He and I even spoke of the situation last night at a meeting.

Fast forward to this morning.  He calls in and asks about my coworker.  Hello, remember, she won’t be in….??!!!  He starts to go off on a tirade about her, about this is one of the problems with her that she didn’t tell him that she wouldn’t be in today, just that she was leaving early…….I put the big kabosh on that tirade.  I stopped him in his tracks and reminded him that I was right there when she told him what was going on and that he and I had even discussed it last night.  He started mumbling and said that maybe he just had to much going on and wasn’t really listening….nice.  And this is what we deal with on a regular basis.

I could go out to the private sector and double or triple my salary.  Might just have to do that because daily crap like this is going to send me to the funny farm—or I will just lose it and go off on him for being a boob.