So I posted all gung-ho a couple weeks ago, and what happens? Sh!t hits the fan at work and now I'm down with that evil respiratory flu bug. I'll run this by you and see what you think: On Wednesday last week my counterpart and I are in early, scrambling to cover a coworker's report that has to be in at 9am. He gets a call from our manager, saying he can skip the 9am meeting because he needs to meet with our assistant general manager and the plant manager. Counterpart figures that today's the day, he's getting let go - he's pushed back on some very unreasonable assignments and there's a lot of bad blood. I get along with him famously myself. We shake hands and make sure we have each other's personal phone numbers. But when he comes out, he's stone-faced and then says to me, "Your turn." I go in and sit down, and am informed that our positions are being dissolved and folded into the customer-based teams. They hand me a new offer letter for the position within the teams and tell me I need to either sign it by the next day, or terminate. The job they are offering is the same one that they told me during the interviews 10 months ago that I was overqualified for, and wouldn't enjoy.

Like my counterpart, I signed it and am starting another job hunt. I have seen 3 different companies of various sizes try this arrangement over the course of my career, and it's failed miserably and had to be undone within about 12-18 months. Meanwhile, the stress it will cause the rest of the folks will cause many to leave, further burdening everybody else.

And now I have the classic upper-respiratory flu bug - the one where your HAIR hurts and the only times I've been warm in two days were sitting in my sauna. I have been wrapped in a quilt with my hoodie up, sitting as still as possible and waiting for this to GO AWAY.

Hi, Nichols!

Shannon, I empathize with you completely. Over the last week I've had thoughts about how fast I need to drive my car into a tree, what in-patient mental services are covered by my insurance, and what would happen if I just simply didn't go back to work any more.

Howlin' - best wishes for your procedure! It seems to be the one place where farting is not only encouraged, but actually cheered.

Michele, we have 3 bugs circulating - mine, yours, and then garden-variety snuffles. GI stuff has to be the worst of the lot. Virtual hugs.

Allison, my first goal is to just get back under 160. I have no idea where I am currently but will be back on the scale as soon as I'm human again. I think the last one I saw was 166. The Neverending Project ...

saef, I had to see what the "showers of gold" thing was about. Wow. That's all I have to say - and now I'm going back to my media blackout.

JZJ - I feel you on the job/career mismatch.

Silver, neuro, Reilly - glad to see you're here and still in the fight!

Becky. That sucks about your job and about being so sick. Hope things improve quickly for you on both fronts.

Dagmar

So sorry Becky. I hope things work out for you.

Day four. Three days being spot-on with food. No alcohol. Sweets at a bare minimum. Calories way under the goal of 1450 (around 1200). Weight? Unchanged. Did my workout this morning. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

We're having all the cabinets in our house refinished. And then we're painting inside and out. Things will be in a messy, smelly turmoil for a few weeks.

Becky: I hate to hear that. Hopefully it gets better!

YWI: 149.4
TWI: 148.2 (Gotta Love that water weight!)
E: 20 min stationary bike; 15 min treadmill;
C: 1200 calories

I'm hoping to get a Walk Away the Pounds workout in. It's early. I'm still exhausted. I'm ready for Thursday to be over with so I can get Friday over with and have a 3 day weekend and clean my house real good. We will see how that goes though lol. Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Thursday morning, at 153.5. Yeah, up. Hoping this is fluid retention.

Becky, the theories behind reorgs are what always bother me. Someone thinks they're being smart, seeing synergies that everyone else missed. But it's not just connecting two wires or combining two sentences on a page. It's human lives. I know this will happen to me in future, as soon as my company completes checkout in buying this other company, figures out what it just bought and sets about "rationalizing" it and "achieving economies" as they eliminate redundancy.

Yeah, so I haven't even taken down my Christmas decorations. My parents were supposed to come up on the 8th, but snow and ice kept them from coming. I always leave them up until they get to celebrate with DSS, but now we are looking at 1/22.

Oh Becky, are you inside my head?
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Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone. I'm okay. I'm working on okay. I've been nervous edgy, and that is making it hard for me to deal with things. Work is pushing me hard - health insurance renewal coming up plus a couple of worker's comp lawsuits outstanding, I'm looking at probably my fourth year without a raise and working my tail off. I'm very different from my employers and most of my coworkers philosophically. It is complex and wears me down. DH has had some tension of late, but he seems to be balancing back out. I hope that will help me focus back. I feel out of control with food and exercise and money and everything, and it results in things like me throwing away an entire box of taco shells because I think they might be stale and locking down over what to drink with dinner. Fun times.

Becky - sorry about the job change, that really sucks. I hope you can find something else near you. And that you feel better soon.

Saef - my husband's company was acquired a few years ago by a different one. The reorgs still haven't settled down. Good luck navigating the waters. I didn't focus on the last few pages apparently, did your plumbing stuff get fixed?

Nichols - you seem to be doing great. Keep up the inspiring work please, it is helping me to read it.

Alice - hope the colonoscopy goes well!

Michele - glad you are feeling better. I hate stomach bugs, I swear.

Wave to all I missed - Birchie, Dagmar, Andrea, everybody.

___________

I did get up and exercise (at 4:30Am !!!) before getting DSS off to school. I did my yoga, 45 minutes on the elliptical, my headspace. Had my meal replacement workout shake for breakfast. I feel pretty good so far. The wheel is about to break on my elliptical, the opposite tread from the one that broke last summer. I so should have ordered two when I got the other one. LOL

Onward and upward. I am actually 3.5# down from last week. Or I was until salty food last night. We'll see what happens there.

Alice-- yuck! Good luck!

So sorry, Becky on all fronts! That sounds horribly stressful with no good solutions unless you can find something else better out there. Hope you feel better soon!

I'm getting a little concerned about my stomach flu. I read (on the internet) that the symptoms can last up to 10 days so I'm still within that window. I hope I'm just taking a turn before getting better. Not to be too graphic, but dh and I just ate soup for a week. Then we added bread the night before last which must have been a mistake. We were both up with heartburn and indigestion during the night and felt lousy yesterday. I had not really had any bowel symptoms except for a rumbly tummy and nausea, but now I have horrible diarrhea. Dh left for China and when we spoke this morning, he said he did too but he's feeling ok now. So.... I'm wondering if I just needed to get it out of my system...??? I'm at work but absolutely dragging. I'm afraid to have coffee so I'm chugging water. I have classes till 1:15 and figure if I need to, I can go home then. Yuck. I just want to feel better. My weight is down almost 7 pounds since the beginning of the year but I'm sure it will rebound.

Michele: I really hope you get feeling better soon! I've heard that stomach bug going around is pretty rough!

Shannon~be careful on the elliptical. Do you remember when mandolinn's wheel broke off when she was on it? Seems to me she broke her shoulder or something like that. Terribly painful for her and I think it was a long recuperation.

As to reorganizations: I've been through a few as a member of a corporate workforce. I remember them to be extremely stressful as you never quite knew where you stood. So, now, being a business owner, we're looking at our own reorganization of a sort. Two years ago, one of our employees quit. (We really think his ulterior motive was for us to beg him to stay and give him an undeserved raise.) We were happy to see him go and his replacement has gone above and beyond our expectations. Anyway, at that time, we opened his position up to all our employees in hopes that one of our younger and more experienced guys would step up. But no one did, so we hired from outside. Now, two years later, the guy we really wanted to step up has asked for that step up (which we were elated to hear!--maybe an early partial retirement?!?!). Then, two weeks later, another guy (another that we thought should step up) has stepped up. So we're in a dilemma. Do we offer it to both? Do we only deal with the first guy? We'll have some tough things to think about this weekend. It would have been a lot easier with just one...

Hey Allison! I remember when hers broke on her, she got hurt badly she still isn't all fixed. Mine is a different assembly then hers, if the wheel shreds off the foot pedal stays in the track it just starts to scrape metal on metal. I'm not stepping on it until I replace it either way though. How are you doing with the exercise restart?

I'm only two days in, but increased speed today and added some ab work afterwards. Next, I'll add some dumbbell work. But I need to be careful. I've really injured my left upper arm/shoulder. I fell on Christmas day (tripped over a dog!) and landed on my elbow. At first I thought I just had a rug burn on my elbow, but as time has gone on, the burn is the least of my worries. I'm not sure if this is rotator cuff or what, but I am extremely stiff. I do stretches and stuff several times a day to get the stiffness out, but simple things like shampooing my hair is painful and difficult.

Dagmar, thanks. Yep, heck of a start to the new year! I'm glad you have been able to avoid the bugs.

Allison, looks like you have a great start! I will be right with you as soon as I beat this bug. Transparency and accountability were key items for me when I made my goal last time. Kitchen turmoil is tough, though it has the greatest rewards. It always amazes me what fresh paint can do for a room. Are you changing the color of the cabinets too?

Saef, I couldn't agree more. On the surface, I completely understand why they are thinking this is a good move and it will have some short-term value for the management team. On paper it looks fine. Unfortunately, our company is undergoing explosive growth and we have weak advanced quality, which leads to a LOT of launch difficulties. And humans have their personalities and preferences for what type of work they do. Most people do not like the level of detail I have to manage, and I know I don't like the interaction that they have to have with the customers. I guess we'll see. It will probably take me several months to find my next position. What a pain in the fanny.

Shannon, it does sound like you're getting pulled in a lot of different directions. I understand - it is a fine line between the decision to get up and start another day, or to burrow under the covers and check out. I spent several months screaming in the car all the way home from work - it helps! I also like a product called Natural Stress Relief from Life Extension Foundation. It's mostly lemon balm but it seems to really take the edge off the way I react to things.

Michele, I think there is something to be said for the "purge". And yeah, staying away from coffee for a bit could help. Good luck with the rest of the day - sounds like it could be a long one.

Becky My stress relief in the car, while the dogs are in it, is swearing like a sailor at all the other idiot drivers but in a really sweet cute voice. The dogs all cock their heads and look at me with great expectation as I ream out yet another driver.

You all can see why I could never work with children? They can and do repeat things.

Dagmar

I caved and went to the doctor. On antibiotics for sinus infection, and he gave me probiotics to hopefully reset my gut. He also said no caffeine and tons of water. Praying it all kicks in quickly. I got the z pack which has worked quickly in the past for me.

Allison.... I'd say if you can use both employees to benefit your company, it might be a wise move. Perhaps weigh the pros and cons.

Friday morning, and I am fuming. When I lost my office and was moved into the cubicle environment, I was suddenly sitting among others and I have to hear their phone conversations and they have to hear mine. Now I find there's someone sitting near me who reports on what I do and say to my manager. One or two things I've said on calls or in the aisles have now come back around to me. That happened yesterday. My manager gave instructions: I'm not supposed to talk about the acquisition because it "frightens people." Now mind you, that was maybe two sentences in yesterday's calls because I've got a lot of other stuff to do. I hate the feeling of being under surveillance and reported on. Also, as far as the frightened part: Am I working among children or adults? You withhold stuff from children, because you supposedly know what's best for them; with adults, you share information.

Weight at 152.9, with an aching little toe because I dropped the scale hard on my foot yesterday morning. The scale didn't do well: The glass part separated from the frame. I put it back together, so it weighs stuff accurately again, but all the body fat and water percentages & etc. now read "ERR." I never believed that part anyway, knowing how hard it is to get a true body fat reading. But it was entertainingly scientific-looking.