Yesterday I heard through the grapevine that someone at work had taken a medical leave. Knowing the guy, it’s probably his back, which would mean a contract of two weeks or so for the (un)fortunate person who would get hired to cover him. It just happens that at the moment I’m first on the rankings, so I anxiously waited all morning for the phone call. It never came. That’s weird.

I haven’t been called today either. I considered two possibilities: they pushed some political bullshit so that the person who would cover him would need to know Basque, a language I don’t speak. The second possibility involves my main boss doing some shady shit to jump over me and hire someone else; during the last contract, that boss refused to acknowledge my existence, as far as I know only because I refused to accept a new contract under much shadier circumstances last January, as I needed to rest due to my heart injury.

I wasn’t worrying too much; after all, I have money saved, and I’m a recluse who can barely tolerate spending fifteen minutes around people, let alone a whole working day. Then I noticed that I had received my check for August. I worked until the sixteenth, but they have paid me as if I had worked the entire month. What the hell?

I visited the intranet to check if they had screwed up which days I had actually worked. It does reflect that I haven’t worked all month, but in addition, to my annoyance, I’m registered as if I hadn’t worked on the 16th. You see, I was covering the leave of a complete dickhead who never calls in advance to inform that he’s returning; whoever is working in his place finds out that very day, at the office, that he has gone to work for nothing, because nobody will pay him for those eight or so hours as the contract officially ended the previous day. I still worked that entire day, because my boss, who also can’t stand the other coworker, assured me that he would talk to the proper department so that they end up paying me for that working day. I also finished a meaty ticket that had kept me busy for days, so it worked out for my boss. However, as mentioned, I don’t appear in the intranet as if I had been present at the office that day.

What’s going to happen is probably the following: the next time I get hired to cover someone’s leave or vacation, I’ll find out that I haven’t been paid for about two weeks of work. If I cared to contact the corresponding department, they’d tell me, “we screwed up, so you owed us money.” It already happened to me once. In addition, I would find out that they counted the sixteenth as not worked, which would solidify my decision, no matter what any of my bosses say, to get my things and leave the next time the coworker whose leave I’m covering suddenly returns for his shift.

Do I care much about this matter? Not really, because instead of wasting my day, as well as my mental and physical health, at work, I got to sit at my desk and finish the latest chapter of my ongoing novel (I write them with one hand; that’s why they take so long). Too bad I will never earn a living wage through writing.

If you live in the Basque country and are considering working for the public health organization, well, you’ll probably end up working there anyway. But just know that they will screw you over, and the whole experience will likely suck balls. Plenty of doctors and nurses have complained around me. On the bright side, I also heard through the grapevine that one of the coworkers I can’t stand is taking a transfer to Vitoria, so that’ll be one less headache.

Anyway, now to more important matters than whether or not I have a job: what about that Starfield, huh? Early Access launches in one day and six hours. Can’t wait to find out if the makers of Skyrim and Fallout 4 have been wasting their time and energies by planning this new universe during the last twenty-five years. As long as I can visit some random planet of the thousand or so available and just enjoy a peaceful, solitary time by wandering through a barren alien wasteland, I’ll consider the money well spent. The faction questlines are likely great as well.

Check out the launch trailer:

Ad astra!