To trudge

When I first started my job, I parked in the second level of the parking ramp just outside the part of the building where I work. When my shift changed to start a couple of hours later, that lot tended to be filled, and I resorted to parking in the overflow lot just south of the building. That parking lot has been torn out to lay the foundation for a new satellite building to the headquarters, mirroring the existing satellite building across the street, which, coincidentally, is where I've been recently forced to park, picking up a shuttle van from the first floor of their parking ramp.

Today, however, I stood in the shuttle loading area as the ten minutes before the start of my scheduled shift ticked away with no sign of a van. I called my supervisor and assured her that I wasn't late (a defensible point being on company property), and that I would be walking the half mile or so to work. She assured me that she would look into the matter of the shuttles, but eventually, I found that it was easiest to just ask one of the drivers. He explained that the vans, as of this morning, only pick up at the front of the building, not at the parking ramp. The shuttle driver explained that it's a short walk to the new shuttle stop, through the building that my security badge does not allow me to enter, and that signs indicating this change were posted, inside the building, which my security badge will not allow me to enter.

I can assuredly walk around the outside of the building to get to the shuttle, but it's only slightly shorter than the half mile walk to my own building. If getting to work gets one step more difficult, I'm taking a short cut through the construction site next time, throwing myself down the pit and living like a king for the rest of my days off the settlement.

It was an invigorating stroll in the 2° morning air, though I can't imagine it did much for my already grotesque choking cough. One of the callers I spoke to today told me that I shouldn't be at work, a sentiment echoed by my nearest co-worker. She told me I'm going to make everyone else ill. I explained that when the company begins calculating my quarterly bonus on how often she calls in sick, I'll start concerning myself with epidemiology.

Until then, I am a plague rat with an average call handle time 7% below goal threshold.