When I got into work, I was surprised when my boss informed me, "I talked to the Senior Executive of our team about the e-mail you sent last night, and she said I can't sign off on your travel, since I wasn't your manager when you did most of it." Okay, but both of the individuals who were my bosses when I did all of that travel are no longer with the company. So who on earth can sign off on the travel?
Even worse was when she said, "The Senior Executive then asked how bad it would be if you got deported, really?" Oh dear God. Seriously? Are we even contemplating this?
Apparently the Senior Exec also thinks I'm on an ex-pat package (I'm not, I'm a local UK employee), and then started ranting about ex-pats, totally ignoring the reality of the situation: I'm a local UK employee who needs someone to sign off that my business travel (which I did on behalf of my company!) was indeed business travel. It kills me, that five years of sacrificing for the company and going where they said to go, and now I've got an idiot Senior Executive who thinks that me getting deported wouldn't be a big deal.
Finally though, I just wrote up something and printed it out without showing it to my boss, and my HR Rep agreed to sign it. It all wasn't worded quite as strongly as I would have liked, but the whole thing seemed to pass muster, on the whole. I'm just so nervous that this is all going to go pear-shaped, because of something I have absolutely no control over, and people from my company not wanting to stand behind me.
In the afternoon I took a quick field trip over to my lawyers' office to drop off the last signed payslips and my new letter, and then made my way back to the office to get more work done. This of course took more time out of my day than I had anticipated, and since I'd really accomplished nothing all day other than dealing with immigration stuff, I ended up staying later in the office than I normally do, trying to get some actual work done.
This had the delightful and unexpected consequence of when I finally did leave the office to go catch my train home, I ran into a guy who had been on my course at Oxford years before. He'd rowed on the Blue Boat, against his brother, and then they'd written a book about the experience called "Blood Over Water". I hadn't really seen him since my Oxford days, and so was surprised when he remembered me instantly.
I got talking to him a bit about what he'd been up to in the years since Oxford, and he now worked for a bank and lived in Notting Hill. Lots of talking about rowing (the Boat Race is this weekend!), running marathons, and just bits here and there, but all a great catch-up. He'd always been a super-nice guy, and here once again this impression was confirmed. Totally random, but a great way to end an otherwise nightmare day. Who knows what fateful occurences the universe might still have in store for me?
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