Yesterday was possibly one of the most insane day's I've had in a long time. I had arrived back at site on Wednesday night (yes, just in time for steak night!), unpacked, watched some TV and went to bed. The next morning the shit show began.

I walked into my office and found a note from one of my girls that she would not be in until later in the afternoon as she had a Doctors appointment. No big deal. I then looked at my desk, or where I had left my desk, and all I could see was a large crested mountain of paper. My heart sank and I stood staring. Many deep breaths later I tried to get to work. The sheer volume of it all was insanely overwhelming. Had I not just been on a 10 day vacation I think I would have cried. I continued on working for about an hour and the sheer amount of work finally just got to me and I went down to my Boss's office and told him we needed to have a chat. He promised to be down in an hour before he left for his days off. An hour and a half later I went down the hall and reminded him that I was still in my office waiting.

Back in the office I continued working and getting myself more and more worked up. By the time my Boss walked in I'd had it. I let loose. How was I expected to run two departments with no Staff (one of my three girls had just been commandeered for another department) and insane expectations? There is no way I'm taking the fall for anything that happened in the future that I wasn't able to get done now because of their short sightedness. I went on and on. The essential theme of my rant was that I felt totally betrayed and let down by Management because I feel like I'm drowning and they're throwing buckets of water on me.

Boss sat looking at me frothing and said. We're not that kind of company. We know you're working extremely hard and we'll back you all the way if there are any problems. I was going to do my performance evaluation of you when I get back but be assured there is absolutely nothing wrong with anything you're doing. Then Boss's boss walked into the room said "Welcome back" looked at Boss and said did you tell him yet? Boss said no. Big Boss disappeared and comes back a few moments later with a piece of paper that he gave to me with the following words. "We'd like to inform you that you've been given a raise and your position title has been changed from Administraitive Assistant (I had no idea that's what it was) to Assistant Business Manager!" Well I tell you I was stunned.

The raise was so small it's almost an insult, but both Bosses made a big deal over the fact that this was a mid-year raise and is very rare in the company. Considering I had no idea what my job title in the company was getting the new one doesn't make any difference at all either... but the recognition of the fact that I'm working my ass off is nice. It's still not going to keep me from keeping my ears open for a job in the real world but it does mean I'll be a little calmer as a result of the fact that I know I'm pretty safe at the moment.