The Undiscovered Country

Andra the Grouch

If I wake up in the morning feeling off as if something bad is going to happen, I try to ignore it. Doing so often makes the feeling a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Not today. I felt off from the moment I woke up. I just knew it wasn't going to be a good day.

As much as I tried to ignore it, turns out my intuition was correct. I found out this morning that one of our employees is leaving. For a small company that can barely keep up with the work load as it is, one person leaving creates a big void. The worst part is I will now have to pick up the slack, and I'm already overworked as it is.

When people are overworked, they tend to make mistakes. This year, I've made a few doozies, partly because I'm so busy I can't spend the time required on any project to make certain it's done right.

That's one of the big problems of living in an area with less than 3% unemployment. Everyone who wants to work already has a job. New employees simply can't be found, especially in an industry such as mine. We need someone with a specific set of skills, and -- again -- those people already work.

So, yeah. I was a grump today, and for once I was justified in being so.