Emergency Departure

Today, is the last day of the current trimester and academic year. Yes, I made it! I was looking forward to going home and chilling out. You know, veg out on the couch, sleep, watch some movies and possibly work on my blog. No chance! I began to get a string of emails stating that my visa would expire on Sunday. Today is Thursday! And, I need to leave the country. Say what!?!  Well, in my opinion email was no longer the appropriate form of communication, thus I picked up the phone to call HR. The HR personnel asked me if I planned to go on vacation and if so, would I go ahead and take it. (Blink twice, take a deep breathe, blink again, open mouth, close mouth) Soooooo, you want me to purchase an international plane ticket with a three day departure time frame. Hold that thought – you have lost your mind. Actually, my response was, “I will not be purchasing a ticket as I had no plans on taking vacation until July. What the company can do is send me to Bahrain and pay for me to reside at a hotel.”

This is the icing on the cake! First, the company had to send about 30 teachers to Bahrain several weeks ago as their visas were expiring. We were all told the teachers would be back in about three days and that turned into weeks for several of them. So, that left the remaining staff and classroom teachers short staffed and overcrowded. And now, you are doing this to senior management as well? I don’t have any words for this type of non-organization and inconsideration. It is simply unacceptable. The company did agree to comply with request/demand. I told them the driver could pick me up on Saturday, giving me a day and few hours to pack and get my things together as I was in the middle of creating timetables for the next academic year. Well, off to Bahrain I went and here I am; working in the hotel – in a waiting pattern.