Hmmm...

My work week is over. I had another day in the home office. 

It got a bit fraught. The Boss gave me a new case first thing which was urgent… in his eyes. My carefully constructed work plan for the day was in shreds by 09:30. In fact, on closer reading the only urgency was coming from the constituent’s sense of entitlement. By the time I realised this, the Boss was stuck in a committee meeting. 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I spoke to the Manager about it and got my timing just perfect. She too was needing to give vent to various frustrations. We spent a good while on the phone talking about it all, and ended up laughing a lot.

What is it they say about a problem shared?

It reminded me that this was the kind of thing we would do almost every day in the Office, and instead of building up, any tensions were released.    

It helped me to draft one of my better “Dear sir, you are an ignorant and selfish a-hole…and we will not be able to help you jump the queue for vaccination” letters. “PS. Quoting a Daily Mail story at us was a disastrous mistake.”

I used different words obviously, and the message is subtle and polite, but clear. Job done.

It was one of those days where a pet or a child - or even an interesting dinner or a pot plant - would have been useful for Blipping. Hmmm…

I have to make do with my cameo role in the vaccination programme - as a victim participant tomorrow morning. The wording of the letter starts “You are now being offered…” This must be why our friends in England count their successes by the number of “vaccines offered” and not the more rational “vaccines administered”. 

I am no epidemiologist, but my hunch is it’s the number of people immunised which is important and not the number of letters sent out.