Dread

Dread is a good word. When I say it, I can feel heart, soul, energy, and yes, lifeblood being drained away.

Dread.

When I say I dread work this week, I am not kidding about the draining thing. Here's why in a word. Meetings. Oh, not the kind of meetings needed to follow up on projects or assign new projects or, potentially, rarely, get things done. No. I'm talking about the other kind of meetings.

The Monday morning staff meeting is being moved up an hour. Painful enough because staff meetings are a huge waste of time. But there's more. I will spend the rest of the morning with all of the people in the department in a locked room being forced to preview the company's new on-boarding web site. (OK, the room won't really be locked. It'll just feel that way. There's no escape. Guards will block the doors. OK, slight exaggeration again with the guards. It'll be guard dogs. With guns. And shoot to kill orders.)

On-boarding is hip-company speak for getting prospective and new employees to fill out forms and then give the new hires an orientation to the company. I admit the on-line capability will be great for our company - over 50% of our employees work remotely. However. I'm a compensation analyst. I don't recruit or give orientations. In fact, my job requires very little day-to-day employee contact (a happy situation that has extended my HR career for nearly 15 years). I won't be using the program or helping others use the program. Still I will be forced to spend four hours looking at the program. Ouch.

Wednesday is an all day workshop on HR legal issues. I hear the first topic of the morning will be Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and leaves of absence. 'Nuf said.

I am very, very grateful for my schedule which will allow me to spend Tuesday and Thursday in mental recovery mode. Which, I guess, makes me grateful for my fibromyalgia. Hmmm.

I need to find a new career.