I had my annual performance review with my manager last month. I mostly passed with flying colors, but there were a couple of areas for improvement that she needed to call out. One was the need for me to think creatively to overcome technical hurdles and avoid derailing timelines. The other was to respect business hours.
It’s the elephant in the room — me being chronically tardy in the mornings. Or so I thought. Turns out that my frequent appointments are even more of a sore spot. She can’t really tell me not to have so many appointments (and she didn’t), but she did say that I need to start taking personal time for them, rather than taking an hour or two off here and there because I can, since I’m a salaried employee. I agreed to take PTO in the future, and I apologized for taking advantage of the system.
And then my calendar blew up.
My dental cleaning appointment led to a cavity filling appointment later in the month. My chiropractor appointment led to an MRI and a visit with my attorney. My hair stylist only works certain days, so that appointment was booked months ago. I see my orthodontist every seven weeks.
Already I’m taking 8 hours of personal time and 8 hours of sick time. Just in January. Broken up into half-day and quarter-day increments, though, it looks like a lot more than just two days of PTO. Our team calendar is plastered with my name: Diana in @ 10am. Diana out in AM. Diana out @ 3pm. No, scratch that — Diana out in PM.
I guess I just don’t want to come off like a slacker (even though I feel like one a lot of the time). I know people talk. I know they have uninformed opinions (and sometimes all-too-informed ones). It’s just hard to step back and not give a shit about other people’s take on my life and habits.
The work-life balance is precarious. This month, Life takes precedence. I’m sure Work will offset the equation later on.
Hopefully not when I’m on-call for two weeks starting tomorrow.