In which she is sick. Again.

[zeborah]

Third time this winter. So not cool.

Working theory:

• immune system still borked from last time
• job stress from being only 90% sure I'll still have a job in six months' time(1)
• immune system further made unhappy by the vast amounts of dust I've been inhaling at work(2)
• heavy contact with student engineers who like to carry their library cards in their mouths, and also, perhaps more relevantly in this case, with a coworker who went home sick yesterday only when her sore throat overcame her normal determination to soldier on and infect the rest of us.

My alternative theory is that it was orange juice. Immediately prior to getting sick the last two times I've squeezed myself a whole heap of orange juice with my neato Kenwood food processor. Common knowledge says that orange juice is good for one's immune system but my anecdata clearly prove this idea highly suspect.

(1) Did I mention that? I mightn't have mentioned it because 90% is pretty high, all things considered. What's happening is that for budget reasons they're merging two of our library branches, and naturally they won't need as many staff once they're done. (In fact I think getting rid of some staff is also necessary for the budget to balance, but they've been coy on that thus far.) We guesstimate, pending actual word from real live management, that they'll need about 80% of those of us at my position; the other 10% is because the union will pursue various options for getting anyone made redundant a job elsewhere in the library system or university. Anyway, standard practice here for culling one's staff is to make everyone redundant and then make them all apply for their old jobs back. I suppose I should get my CV up-to-date, though what the point of "Same as last time you hired me but with the addition of the work I've done for you" is I really don't know.

(2) In order to fit two libraries' worth of books into one, we have to move piles of the stuff into storage. This is the older stuff that no-one uses, and you can tell that no-one uses because after you've worked with it for half an hour your hands are black.

Comments

[slrose.livejournal.com]

Large quantities of dust bother even those people who are not allergic to it.

It may not make you sick, but it can certainly lower your resistance so that you catch whatever germs the engineers and your colleagues share with you.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I sympathise on the job stress. The main reason I moved from my last-but-one job to my last job was the lack of job security. Every year there was the "Will we, won't we?" question of whether the college would get another contract to carry on running the training centre. A couple of times we had to do the reapply for your own job palaver. It is no fun at all. :(

The orange juice theory of illness is intriguing. It runs counter to all current thinking. Perhaps your body unconsciously knew it was falling ill and the sudden urge to squeeze oranges was a desperate yet ultimately doomed attempt to boost the immune system?

[zeborah]

I think there are microbes secreted between the peel and the segments. It's all part of some alien conspiracy. Today I'm drinking apple juice instead, from a bottle. With any luck the factory processes will have foiled Their tampering with Mother Nature.

[poetrychook.livejournal.com]

Clearly you need a holiday. I recommend you take one in about a week's time, when you are feeling better enough to enjoy it.
Do you still have sick leave left?

[zeborah]

24.5 days apparently. It accrues and I've never been that sick before this winter. Even otherwise, the uni's granting leave in advance of entitlement as part of its flu prevention plan.

[chuk-g.livejournal.com]

Some kind of secret toxic mold deposit in a difficult/impossible to clean section of the food processor that you make the OJ with? I'm going with either that or the cow-orker.

[zeborah]

Hmm, you think the aliens have impregnated the plastic with influenza virusesesees in such a way that only citric acid (rather than milkshakes or zucchini-and-tomato soup) can unleash the fatal annoying disease?

This theory has merit. It's probably some obscure revenge for the farmers who, enraged at burgeoning rabbit populations and a cautious government, mixed calicivirus in their kitchen blenders.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Keeping you in uncertainty is a pretty lousy thing. And, of course, if they make everyone redudant they can redraw the job specs to be ever so slightly more in their favour...
That sounds like a pretty stressful thing to do. I reccommend chili instead of orange juice - fingers crossed everything will sort itself out to your advantage.

[zeborah]

They'll tell us pretty much as soon as they know anything themselves ("pretty much" because some kinds of information they have to tell our union before they tell us). They've just been so busy trying to sort out the building timetable that they haven't really got started on the organisational change proposal. (To put this into perspective: due to building-falling-apart syndrome, the library's been wanting to merge the two branches for 15 years, and figured it'd take 18 months to do it; but couldn't due to not having the funding. Now we've got to do it in 6 months in such a way as to save money.) And they won't be able to redraw the job specs: it's a standard position description across the whole library and a standard contract across all non-academic staff in the whole university. It'd be pretty blatant if they tried anything funny (especially since they're the ones who went to all the effort last year to standardise the position descriptions) and the union would shout bloody murder.

I did discover a packet of kimchi noodles in my pantry last night. Now alas they're all gone, but it was nice while it lasted. I could get some more, if I got showered and dressed and went to the supermarket.