Finally! Some Relief!!

Some time ago, I mentioned how stressed out I was feeling about my job. Regular (I use that term VERY loosely, LOL!) readers of this blurt might remember the schmozzle surrounding the wages I was earning vs. what I was told I SHOULD be earning once I got my lift-truck certificate. Back in the beginning of March, the company initiated an audit of the salaries of all the lift-truck operators, both "old" and "new". Since then, rumours have been flying around saying there was going to be a raise, there wasn't going to be one, etc. Our managers kept hedging when asked and my stress level went up a little every day.

Eventually, I reached the end of my energy and stamina and I totally crashed. I was at work last Tuesday (April 1st - no joke) when it happened. I began to start shaking, like my muscles couldn't function anymore. I felt so tired, my vision was blurry and I felt sick to my stomach. A few of my co-workers noticed and told me I looked "pale", "awful", "exhausted" and other descriptive comments letting me know I looked as bad as I felt. I called my wife at her work and asked her to pick me up when she got off at 11:00 am. I struggled through the rest of the morning until she picked me up at noon. I got home and crashed... sleeping for the rest of the afternoon. I slept most of Wednesday as well. On Thursday, I slept in a little bit, and then, since my wife was off work, had her take me to the local walk-in clinic I visit when I need a doctor's note for work. The clinic was completely full of sick people and I was turned away at the door, since I wasn't a "regular patient" of the doctors who run the clinic. We also had to take our little Sheltie, Rebel, for his annual vet check-up and rabies and distemper shots. So we tried again that afternoon, with the same results. I couldn't get in to see a doctor that day. So, I called my doctor to see if I could get in to see him. Normally, it takes a week or so to get an appointment with my doctor so I was quite surprised when I was offered an appointment the next day!

My doctor was quite blunt and told me that I was on the brink of a "meltdown" due to too much stress, both physical and emotional, and strongly encouraged me to take even more time off. I told him I couldn't afford it, due to the fact that in less than a month after getting benefits I had burned through all my 6 allotted paid sick days for the entire year! He shrugged and told me to be prepared to get sick again, but gave me a certificate verifying that I was sick during the time I was off so that I could return to work on Monday.

Today, shortly after starting work, I was asked to go see my manager in his office. "Uh oh, here it comes!" I thought. I was almost sure that I was about to either get "written up" for my frequent absences or let go altogether. I immediately went to my manager's office, but when I got there, I saw another co-worker in there already, one that had received his fork-lift training the same day I did. I quickly realized that this must be the last step of the review process that we had been waiting a month for. I went and finished some work I had and then came back to the office once I knew that my co-worker was done.

To shorten this already lengthy post, I received a very good review, and to make it even better, was told I will be getting the full fork-lift operator's wage retroactive to March 2, the day my review started! That means my hourly rate will increase by $2.24/hour! I'm still quite tired, but my stress level has dropped considerably tonight!

That said, I'm going to cut this short, and go to bed.