Would Like to Play Hooky today

Today I wanted to hide in bed and skip work because I was scheduled to perform a very unpleasant job duty for the first time ever. The last two weeks were spent agonizing over it and now that the day was finally here, I wanted to avoid the clinic completely. Of course I went in as usual. Well, less than usual because my mind was preoccupied with the upcoming duty and I was pretty quiet all day.

Mabeline arrived late, normal for her. We had surgeries going, patients recovering from anesthesia, appointments waiting, only one Technician, me and Dora. Instead of jumping in to help or check on animals, Mabeline grabbed a cleaning bottle and cleaned spots on walls and then spent 15 minutes folding laundry while chatting with Dora. The Technician and I were both becoming very irritated but I could say nothing because of the dreaded upcoming task.

Finally things were at a slow pace, we were caught up with patient care and surgeries, appointments were at a lull...it was time to do what caused me so much stress. I asked Mabeline to join me in the breakroom for her third performance evaluation. We scheduled this six weeks ago, she knew it was to be done today and knew her job was in jeopardy unless her score today was much improved from her previous scores.

Yep, the horrible job duty I had to perform today was giving Mabeline her termination letter and telling her why. Rather than terminate her immediately based on her low score, the clinic was lenient and gave Mabeline a two week notice.

I dreaded my position of being the deliverer of bad news, but knew Mabeline dreaded her position even more. Today I did my job by telling Mabeline she lost hers. I hope I never have to perform that job duty again.