Short Timer's Disease

It's really getting bad.

With only 1 more work day until a 3 week vacation, I've developed a bad case. My heart is just not into working all night and giving my all in the office during the day.

Speaking of the office, we're losing a couple of really good people. After 9 years, our Manager of Network Services is taking what he learned at Acuity Brands, and moving back home to Birmingham. Unfortunately, he's also taking his wife, who's in charge of our Oracle Applications. They're both exceptional people and will be missed.

But back to my Shorttimer's Disease. I'm sure you all know the symptoms. You can't concentrate, your short-term memory goes to pot, and your desire to excel is subordinated to a desire to catch a trout as long as your arm. I'm reasonably certain that I will be overwhelmed by the disease, and have to leave early tomorrow because I'm too well to work.

There is an inverse to this disease, but it's too depressing to think about when you are in the throes of a Shorttimer's attack. It occurs in the few days on either side of the end of a vacation, and can be thought of as the employment analog to a diver's decompression. If your transition from Trout Bum to Database Engineer is too rapid, you develop the mental bends.

Fortunately, one can safely transition from state to the other. Unfortunately, it only takes a few days back in harness to wash all of the vacation from your system. Still, it's a good and necessary thing to put the day to day troubles aside for a while and do something you love. I guess that's why it's called re-creation.

But, right now, the only real thought in my head is "I leave in 5 days!"