One clinic I work at is self-destructing. I’ve been here at least one day a week for 7 years. The owner is insane. That’s a clinical diagnosis not just a description. He hasn’t been to work since just after Thanksgiving. The associate also decided to not come back. It has been me and another relief vet keeping the place running. So, the owner has been saying he’d be back after the first of the year. It is after the first of the year. I called him yesterday and asked if he would in fact be back today which was his first scheduled day. He sounded better than he’s sounded in a month. He said he’d be back and I believed him even though I had been willing to lay money on the line to say that he wouldn’t be back.

So I walk in this morning to the news that he had just called and said he wasn’t coming in. I wasn’t even surprised. But I’ve had enough. I told the staff to reschedule all the elective surgeries because we didn’t schedule enough time to me to do them. We had assumed that I would be seeing appointments until noon while he started surgeries at 9:30.

Then in the afternoon the relief vet who is scheduled for tomorrow called and she is really sick. I put my foot down and said that I am not bailing him out. He was called and told that she was ill and I can’t work. I don’t actually have anything to do but he’s screwed around too much. He is going to have to come in and do his job.

I told the staff that I’m not taking any phone calls from the clinic but I expect calls from personal cells phones to keep me informed of what is going on. His daughter is threatening to go to his house in the morning and drag him out of bed and drive him to work. This ought to be interesting.