Hungry, Sick, Homesick and Furious

It's not the best job and company in the world, but I've learned to love my job and my workplace. The pay is not much but it is proportionate to the workload, or the lack thereof. The stress level is not that high compared to the bigger companies I've worked with before. I've been here for almost a year, and I don't want to leave, but one thing is really making me think about leaving very soon. The absences of my so-called teammate. Yes, the same teammate making my life miserable here ever since.

I've been sick the past week, but I forced myself to work because I have family to feed. My shift this month is from 1PM to 10PM, then that teammate supposedly takes over from 10PM to 6AM. Now, that person texted at 9:59PM that he's "sick" and will be absent tonight. Again, not informing us ahead so we can make some arrangements. He's forcing me to cover for his shift tonight, something I can't do because my daughter is home alone!

What's worse is that our office manager is not replying to any of my text messages, and he locked our office land line so we can't call mobile phones, his mobile phone. I'm basically stuck here, hungry, sick, thinking about my daughter back home, and having this job that I can't leave anytime. They can't blame me if I leave now, right? I'm seriously thinking of leaving right now and going home, and probably never coming back to this office. Ever.

This is what I get for sticking with a company that despite being around for quite some time now, doesn't have clear policies and penalties for absences and call-ins. In all the big companies I've been with, people always call-in at least 2 hours before their scheduled shift to inform the office that they'll be absent, and it has to be a phone call. People in this office are so lax and a lot have been abusing the leniency of the company. Sad to say, this company will never grow if this culture continues. We used to call this a "small Australian company." It will continue to be that way if higher management down to the lowest rank and file will continue their ways.

I am very disappointed, and I'm very pissed.