Oh yeah, today was pretty funny.
I have a cold. I went in and did most of my work and then decided to take a half-day off. I don't get a lot of calls (it's faxes more than anything - I get maybe 15-25 calls a day) and was thinking that oen afternoon won't be that bad and that I'd probably just have a couple calls in my voicemail in the morning. If that.
I called my manager (down in New Jersey) to let her know. The following hilarious conversation took place. Keep in mind the fact that I am the Order Desk, Customer Service, and a variety of other things for all of Canada:
Me: "Yeah, I'm going to leave at 12:30."
Her: "Ah, uh, okay. Hey is [The National Sales Manager] there?"
Me: "Uh, no... he's in Montreal. Why, what did you need?"
Her: "Uh, well, I was thinking maybe he could cover the phone while you're out."
Me: "...."
Hey, maybe he KINDA HAS BETTER THINGS TO DO? Maybe he also HAS NO CLUE HOW TO DO THIS JOB BECAUSE IT'S NOT EVEN REMOTELY HIS RESPONSIBILITY?
Her: "Hey can you just wait there for a few minutes?"
Me: "Uh, I guess so?"
*click*
minutes pass, she calls me back. Give me instructions for my voicemail message. Also adds this gem:
Her: "Yeah, you know I was just talking with [her boss] about this yesterday, that we have no one to cover for you. I mean, you're gonna want to go on vacation at some point."
At that point all I could do is laugh. I mean really, come on.
Not that anyone familiar with our company should be the least bit surprised that we had no contingency plan for [whatever... hell anything] at this point.