Holidays!

They're here, and not a moment too soon. Jobby jobbiness reached a peak yesterday, so the timing is good.

The meeting yesterday (re-visiting Prague) flipped into a ?verbal warning on my 'unreliability'. The only example supplied was from Prague last week, when I missed the first 1.5 hrs on the third morning, after the dispute with the boss. That my roles and deadlines can have me working at home on weekends or all night till 4 or 6 am wasn't accounted for. No- not being there 9-5, 5 days is unreliable. I'm now to be under the microscope on timekeeping and performance. The timesheets are fine with me- keeping these can only strengthen my position- but performance is a different matter.

I'm to cover my colleague's maternity leave for a year from Sept. There will be no acting-up pay. The preggers colleague has had me as a fulltime colleague for 15 months and together we managed an intensive slug trial for 3 months last autumn.

But in contrast I'm to have one (maybe two) part-time, casual, untrained, inexperienced newbies as my back-up. I'll be responsible for their training and performance on the 9-month slug trial, and personally on-call 24/7 from Sept. to manage, co-ordinate, cover absence and complete the trial.

The boss, who is all heart, said he didn't want to show me the stick without offering the carrot. The carrot is a performance-related bonus of... (wait for it)... £1K in a year's time, should the 9-month slug trial go well. That's £25/wk (before tax) for 9 months of 24/7 on-call.

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I'd put in a request to work a 12-hr nightshift during my hols (£170 before tax) to produce the high-quality recording needed for external quality-verification in the slug trial. I need the money, they need a perfect recording.

The colleague emails today saying she prefers one of our casual staff runs the accreditation recording. She offers the consolation prize of attending for the same 12-hr overnighter, but acting instead as the slug subject. I can earn £50 (before tax) for the same 12-hr shift, and can I also train staff in the new slug study procedures that night, since I'm there anyway?

While thanking her for this exciting career opportunity over my holidays, I graciously declined the offer.

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Fuck this for a game of soldiers. The jobbie I'm applying for today is a 4-day, 9-5 post for more pay. If there's a god, I'll be in a new jobbie soon, hopefully just when the colleague starts maternity leave. I'm a sinner, because the pure joy of observing fall-out as they struggle to meet contracted slug study commitments with one or two underpaid, untrained, casual, part-time staff members is so very, very attractive.