The email said they were in need of someone to handle a "delicate" situation in Denver, CO that would require being there most of Nov and Dec and they needed someone by end of business "today". I returned her IM and told her I had some commitments I didn't want to back out of and did she know what the specific dates were and what I would actually need to be doing? She said she was just about to look into it and would call me and let me know.
She ended up calling me at home after I had logged off work and told me that other people had volunteered but that she really wanted me to do it, that I was the only one she trusted with it. "IT", I found out, meant dealing with an office recently acquired in a merger that had 3 people quit as a result of the merger and someone needed to go there and learn their jobs (before you start thinking what you're thinking...they have no intention of closing that office and the people who quit were informed that no jobs were in jeopardy...I was just supposed to go and learn their jobs so we could help support their office from our office until they were able to hire replacements; at least I believe that was the gist of it).
She then told me she was going to go meet with her boss and ask if they reduce the amount of time gone (she didn't think I would need 4 weeks to learn their job as it was basically identical to what I do now, only on a different -and easier- system), and she was going to insist I be flown home for the holidays. Then she told me that she'd let me know.
Well, by 6pm I knew she'd have gone home for the day and she hadn't called, so like a frantic fool I called people trying to find someone to dog-sit and contacted the people who would be impacted by my not being able to keep prior commitments...and tried to figure out how I could afford a winter coat and freaked over the possibility of driving in snow for the first time.
I didn't fall asleep easily, but eventually, after much prayer and surrender, I dozed off.
First thing in the morning when I started up my computer there was an email to our team from my boss announcing she has found someone to go, and the winner was....not me.
I sat there and kept re-reading it. Ok, I know I had a migraine yesterday....I was out of it...perhaps I misunderstood. No, I had clarified that she didn't want the others, she wanted me. What was the deal???
I replied to her announcement to the effect of "Did I misunderstand what you said?"
When she got in this morning, she called me and said I hadn't misunderstood, but she had decided that I was too valuable to the team and the work I did would get out of control if I was gone for that long, so she picked someone else. (And I'm trying not to vent my frustration over who was chosen....I've already deleted it a couple times...ok, moving on quickly).
So, after many tears of frustration, my "first business trip" has officially evaporated.
I guess, technically, I could count taking medical supplies to the orphanage in Thailand when my sis and I were running a non-profit for orphans as a business trip.
Gee, it's not quite so bad if I think of it that way. I wasn't cheated out of a "first". I was perhaps saved from walking into a tense, stressful, unfriendly work environment I'd be alone in for weeks. Ok....(deep breath) feeling much better.
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