This week can do one

The feeling you have after a week’s annual leave, supposedly of having rested and regathered, hasn’t lasted long on my return this week.  For some reason its been a real challenge, more so than usual.

So many of my team are either on annual leave or off sick, or off because someone in their household has symptoms so they need to isolate.  Of course the knock on effect for those left in the office has been really difficult.  The volume of work doesn’t decrease, and the type of role we have means that you can’t just leave it until the next day. Stresses and strains were really showing.

I have emailed all our services users to explain our predicament to give them the heads up that our service might not be up to standard. It has prompted a few to offer support where they can, albeit very limited, for which we are incredibly grateful. Of course there are others who are adding more pressure by phoning through monotonously, demanding that theirs is more important than anyone else’s. Well, no its not. Its all as important as each others because it involves patients, and one patient is no more or less important than the next.

In order to support my team as best I can I will come in on my day off to deflect some of the grief they’re getting, and I have also bought them all a prepaid coffee voucher as a thank you for their hard work. Neither of these things goes anywhere near to making up what they’re dealing with this week, but a simple way for me to acknowledge them.

Here’s hoping next week is a bit better. This week can definitely do one.