What do you mean, when you say Work

My boss just left for vacation. By my count, it's the ninth vacation he's taken this year. I have no idea why. When I say Vacation, I generally mean a break from work. If you go on Vacation, it implies that you have, at some point, been at Work, and were Working. Now, I'll grant you that my boss is frequently here, in the building. I might even be willing to concede that he does the occasional work. But it's occasional, and not exactly difficult.

Now, if playing solitaire were a paying trade, he'd be the hardest working man in the zipcode. Solitaire and online poker. I actually went into his office once. I had a client on the phone, and they had a question that only my boss had the authority to answer. Answering the question would have required him to log into the company's customer database, check some numbers, and make a decision. The customer was hot. A big client, too, not just one of our rinky-dink customers.

He wouldn't do it. He had me put the customer into his voicemail because he didn't want to interrupt his session of texas hold 'em. Had a good hand. He was gonna hit it big on the flop. Understand, this isn't even a game for money. Not that that would make it okay to blow off your clients, but still. Just pretty pictures on the screen that made him feel smart when he pushed the right buttons. Do you see where I'm going with this? Do you understand the idiots I work with?

Anyway. He's gone for the week. No one will notice. He will receive no mail from clients, field no calls from vendors, and make no decisions about scheduling. He never does. He has successfully made himself superfluous to the operation. The only thing he does is complain about how much work he has to do, increase the workload of those of us in the vicinity of his responsibility line on the org chart, and play solitaire. Mostly solitaire.

So. Have a great vacation, boss! You're the best!