Attitude 11

“Sir, the first half of vacation begins from tomorrow.” “I know, I am on vacation too.” I said. “Did you hear what Dr. XXXX said?” “What?” I asked. It had to be something very interesting. I had had a couple of interesting interactions with him in the last few hours on the same topic. “Today’s is his unit’s emergency. He told his boss that he would take calls only up to midnight, since a new day starts after midnight, and he will be on vacation from that point.” I was aghast. He was known to show that he would be at the hospital for as short a period as possible. He would arrive on the last second permitted every day, never on time, and definitely never early. He would leave at 4:00 P.M. sharp. He used to come much later and leave much earlier in the past, but the biometric attendance system has changed him in this regard. He would not take calls on phone claiming his phone was out of order, but would claim the telephone reimbursement from the hospital anyway. After severe reprimanding by a previous Dean, he started taking calls on his emergency days. Even then, his mother would pick up the phone and scold the caller for disturbing her son. But not to want to take calls until the emergency ended was a new height to his inclination to avoid work. “The boss agreed?” I asked. “Yes. But now it is past 3:00 P.M. and he is busy working!” “That is expected. His Boss told him to finish all work and then proceed on vacation” I said. “Even I told him to finish work first. I reminded him that he had run away on vacation last time without completing all vital work, and when I called his residence, his mother took the phone, said he was away to an unknown place for unknown period without a contact number or address, and that we should get all work done by him before he went on vacation.” “I know!” Actually the whole department knew. “I instructed him to leave his address and contact number for the duration of his vacation, should the hospital need his services for an emergency like resident doctors’ strike.” “I know that” she said. “He was extremely angry with that. Getting a vacation is his right and no one can interfere with it, he said. He said he would throw his resignation letter on your face.” “He did not do that” I smiled. “He wrote his address and phone number down on that notice I had taken out. He is even completing his work before going on vacation.” “That must be because his mother said so on phone to you, not because that is the right thing to do.” She suggested. “He will not resign” I said. “Of course not. When he was heard to threaten he would resign, all of us volunteered to type out his notice of resignation. He just walked away.” That was a bit unkind on him. But I could not blame them. They all were tired of him, and justifiably so.