Thursday, May 31, 2007

Work and Pee

Sure, at first glance those two things have very little in common. Well, that is, I guess, unless you work in a clinical environment or for one of those fetish websites. I digress...

For me - what do work and pee have in common? Their ability to prevent a restful sleep.

It was a bad day at the office yesterday. Despite my reputation as a heinous bitch, I really don't like the part of my job that requires I deal with behavioral employment issues. Yesterday, there was not one, but two meetings of this nature. They're emotional, they're difficult, and the aftermath usually takes a few days to settle down. I have actually found that terminating an employee is less stressful than keeping one, but having to take other disciplinary action. Surprisingly, most of the time what I hear when I fire someone is "OK". When they get a written warning, with the notification that termination would be inevitable if the behavior occurs again, I get a (usually impressive) list of excuses, tears, denials, etc.

I have a pretty hard (and tasty candy) shell, but I really don't like being the bad guy. I don't like being disliked. I don't like making people feel bad. However, I do believe in honesty. I believe that the point of counseling sessions are to clear the air, recognize why the behavior was unacceptable, and make it clear what my expectations are.

Anyway, yesterday's meetings were tough and did not have the kind of resolution I was hoping for. I wanted it to be done and over, and we'd all move on. The stress of the situation, the metal replay (in super slo-mo, of course), and the concerns of the aftermath all contributed to a restless night.

The other part of the sleeplessness was, as mentioned, pee.

I made it very clear to my daughter at dinner that I wanted her to stay in her own bed all night. She did. My son, however peed his bed, and came to me in tears at 3:00 this morning. Not wanting to lose any sleep that I might have gotten by getting up and doing laundry, this time I had the larger child in the bed. He's a little better bed partner, as he only went horizontal once - the rest of the time, he'd flip and flop from side to side, still waking up the lightest sleeper known to human-kind (me), but at least the bruising is minimal.

So I ask that you wish me a restful and urine free night tonight. I could use a solid night of sleep.

2 comments:

alienbody said...

My prescription is that you leave them with daddy and stay at a nearby hotel.

Chickenbells said...

I hope you get a good rest...with the full moon, I've been struggling to sleep all the way through.